Shane Gray Man Overboard!
by itsuckstobeunder21
Summary: Based on 1987's "Overboard" movie. Shane Gray is a stuck up jerk that has spent the last days bugging on the "catering girl" what happens when he falls overboard his yacht, causing him amnesia? Well, Mitchie gets her payback! Rated T for strong language.
1. Of How I Learnt to Hate a Rock Star

"Of How I Learnt to Hate a Rock Star"

That stupid, stuck up, obnoxious Shane Gray!

They called Connie's catering this morning, asking for service from a guy called Cesario (weird name, big money; that's what mom always says) and due to the fact that my mom is on a "second honey moon" with my dad (yuck! Don't even ask about it) I have to answer to that call myself.

The guy that called, Brown Cesario (weirder name, lots more of cash) asked me, in a clear British accent, if I wasn't too young for the job.

I think I've heard that on a cartoon somewhere. After I assured him I could keep up with whatever they'd ask me to do, he shrugged his shoulders, deciding to believe me and conduced me to the kitchen of the yacht.

"And I have to warn you, young lady" he said before leaving me to my cooking "I have a VERY special nephew…"

Special like what? Did he have any disabilities? I just nodded to signal him I had taken that and processed it on my mind and was ready to move my hands. The man left and I puffed; why was I even interested of what he had to say about his retarded nephew? I was there to cook and only that…

Yeah, well, that's what I thought until HE crashed inside the kitchen.

Shane Gray, the famous pop star band Connect 3's lead singer had just entered the kitchen I was preparing egg rolls in. I have no intentions of lying to you by saying I am not aware of how famous this guy is or that I don't have a copy of their latest CD or that I don't own a HUGE poster of him and his band mates.

I was about to introduce myself in a shaky, nervous, oh-my-god-I'm-a-huge-fan-of-yours way when he decided to shot me a look, that went from the top of my head (that I had covered with a hair net to keep food sanitation) to the tip of my toes, covered with plain white flats, passing by the white and boring catering uniform. I wasn't wearing my black mini or my push up corsé and suddenly wished I had; not everyday a famous popstar crosses your way and when they do, I can assure you, you want to look your best.

"What's with the baby cook?" he snorted as he opened the refrigerator door and took a bottle of Pellegrino's water.

Baby cook? Now I could get why Brown had tried to warn me about his nephew; he WAS retarded, but as I was there to work and I still expected to get a good payment I decided to stay professional and look past his stupid comment "Despite how young I may look, I am able to handle and prepare high quality meals" I responded, trying to sound refined, just to shut the hell up him.

He raised an eyebrow and sipped his Pellegrino "I just hope you know I'm allergic to eggs… and flour" he threw a dirty look to the eggrolls I was just preparing and then stormed off.

I guess what they say is true; Rockstars are plain jerks.

I kept on making my egg rolls in peace, hoping he would choke on one of them when he ate; I had only put them in the oven for only fifteen minutes when HE was back to bug me:

"What's that smell?" he plugged his nose and gave me the same dirty look he had given to my poor innocent egg rolls just minutes before.

"Butter" I nodded and replied with as much niceness as my annoyance allowed me to show.

"You're not expecting I eat THAT, are you?" he pointed to the oven with disdain.

I was about to shove the oven tray on his ass when Mr. Cesario (I always have to call my bosses with respect and by their last name) appeared on the door.

"Yes! Exactly what I thought I was smelling; egg rolls!" he spoke with enthusiasm "young lady, I'm afraid you have earned double your payment!"

I felt like sticking my tongue out to Shane when Brown wrote me a large check and passed it to me, but I was still working so I still had to keep my professionalism. I thanked him as I hid the check in the bag of my apron and then turned to check on the egg rolls. I had to thank Shane (who was now being reprimanded by Brown for being rude) because I was sure that Brown had doubled my check's value due to HIM and HIS horrible comments on my food and me.

"Perhaps you could… come by again tomorrow?" Brown tried on his polite tone when I was ready to go.

I considered it for a while and found three strong reasons to say no:

One: Shane was a jerk

Two: The yacht, as any other yacht should, was parked in the port; I live on the city which is five hours from the place (needless to say I lost my whole day already, just being insulted by a stupid, stuck up Shane Gray).

And Three: Did I mention Shane was jerk?

But… there were 3 zeros, I mean, reasons to say yes. So I accepted and agreed to come by the next day.

So, the story goes almost exactly as the day before; rude Shane, delicious food and Brown doubling my paycheck.

Except, this time when I was packing my stuff in the back of "Connie's Catering" van an infuriated Shane Gray approached me and grabbed my arm. It hurt me, so it wasn't any surprise that I fought to free my arm from his sudden grab.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked him as I tried to push him back.

"I hope you're happy!" he replied furiously, dragging me closer to him just so I could see a small red stain in his forehead "Look what your food did on me; I told you I was allergic!"

I stopped trying to fight him and laughed; he had issues. With indignation in his eyes, he let go off my arm; he gave a loud groan and turned around.

I turned back to close my van, when I heard water splashing behind my back; I rolled my eyes as I thought it was another of Shane's ridiculous way to drag attention. I walked to the front of the van, closed the door behind me and drove away to home, sweet home.

---

Shane was nowhere to be found and Brown was clearly worried about it; it wasn't in Shane's nature to disappear that way. Maybe in the old Shane's nature it was, but not in the new "rockstar jerk" Shane; he would hardly live without hair products.

He grabbed his cell phone and called the only other possible witness of what had happened to Shane:

"Good nigh, this is Connie's Catering you're calling" Mitchie Torres replied in a monotone polite voice.

"Hey, Mitchie" Brown spoke to her "do you, by any chance, remember the last time you saw my nephew?"

Brown felt out of place asking that question to her and she was probably feeling out of place answering to it: Mitchie and Shane weren't precisely best friends.

"The last time I saw him was 3 hours ago, before I drove back home" she checked her wristwatch carefully; she was still driving to get home; she made memory and remembered the sound of splashing water "I think he went for a swim; have you looked for him on the beach?"

Brown HAD looked on the beach, about 3 times; but I guess that only meant Mitchie was as clueless of where the guy could be as him "Yes, I have, Mitchie; thank you very much, anyways" he responded to her and hanged up his phone.

Mitchie hanged on the other side and couldn't help but roll her eyes again; Brown shouldn't be so much worried about him, he was probably hiding to make a point on his uncle, which was how much he hated Mitchie cooking for them; but the "hunger strike" had came a little too late given Mitchie had finally been released from coming back to that yacht.

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	2. You Heard The News Today?

"You heard the news today?"

"A young man around 16 years old was found this morning, floating off shore by a recollection boat…"

"Mitchie, would you pass me the Cheerios?" Amanda, the only slightly polite of my four little sisters asked me and I passed her the cereal box, before I turned my head back on the TV; what was with that boy floating off shore? Hardly ever something interesting happens here.

"If you recognize the young man or you have any information about his relatives you can call…" My jaw dropped when a bad picture of a dirty Shane Gray with bloodstained eyes and bags underneath them appeared on the screen; the poor guy looked like shit that almost had been drowned.

"MItchie, where's my bacon?!"

"Mitchie, I want bacon too!"

"Shut up, will you?" I shouted to the twins; Annie and Allie, before I turned back on the screen, just a little too late; the news guy had already given the word to the weather man. I stood froze for ten seconds more; had I really seen him or was I just in some kind of post-Shane trauma that made me see him everywhere?

"MITCHIE, MY BACON!" Annie shouted once again and I shook the thought off my mind; like I wanted to think of him at all; I shivered at the thought of it and walked to the souffe to make the girl's breakfast.

"MITCHIE!" Kara, my 13 year old sister shouted; she ran down the stairs as she put on a green cashmere cardigan to cover her pink pajama dress; which were mine (that girl loves to steal my clothes) and hurriedly placed herself in my face "OH MY GOD; YOU SAW THAT?!"

"Kara, would you please, stay away? I'm making bacon here; you're about to leave stains of oil all over MY new cardigan!" I pushed her aside, but she wouldn't leave her excited look so I HAD to ask, just so she would leave me to cook in peace "Saw what?"

"SHANE GREY!" she shouted, rolling her eyes with annoyance and disbelief "it was him, right? The guy they found "floating off shore"?"

I dropped down the fork I had in my hand with the one I was moving the bacon; so it was real? "I-I don't know, Kara" I said, trying harder to convince myself it was a lie "Maybe the guy only looked like him…"

Kara bit her lip as she sat down on the table and served herself a plate of Cheerios "yeah, probably you're right; I mean, it would've been believable if he lived or was around here lately, but he's obviously somewhere on L.A. in a recording studio" Kara sighed, dreamily "it's just not possible…"

…but it was possible; I knew he had been here at least for the last two days and incidentally he had been lost, that was the last thing I heard from Brown Cesario. "Kara…" I picked up the fork from the floor and dropped it inside the sink "There's something I haven't told you…" I told her; I had decided to keep secret I was working with Shane Grey to avoid over-excited Kara to ask me if she could come help me and also because I didn't want to have to tell her, her biggest celebrity crush was a plain jerk "it's about Shane Gray…"

She looked at me with interest, she was obviously not waiting for the story I'd give her next "What? Has he decided to go solo? Connect 3's releasing a new album? Oh my god! They cancelled the summer tour!"

"it's not that" I nodded and took a new fork from one of the drawers and picked the made bacon to place it on the table in a large plate with paper towels in it to suck the excess of oil off them; the twins (who had been chasing each other around the house) finally sat down and eat; I sat beside Kara and faced her; I knew she'd be enormously hurt I had kept secret my close encounter with Shane Gray "Remember that call we got from Brown Cesario?"

The little Kara nodded at me, she still had no idea what was about to come.

"Well, that guy Cesario is Shane Gray's uncle..." Kara gave me an excited look which told me she hadn't understood completely what I tried to tell her "...So Shane was with him when I went for the catering job in the yacht"

Her face went from excited to angry, to thoughtful and then back again to excited "Then it IS him! The guy they found IS Shane Gray!"

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**Very, very short... but I have one more chap on my notebook and I will most likely update on the weekend! If you want me to update faster, leave me a review!**


	3. For Crying Out Loud!

**A/N: I'm sorry it took me so long; I had it in my computer, I just couldn't update... I know it's short, but that only means I'll have to update next faster and this time it will be FAST.**

"For Crying Out loud!"

I walked from one side to another inside the waiting room; how had Kara managed to convince me to bring her to the hospital to see Shane? It was her puppy-dog eyes, I can swear; she's damn good at asking for things.

So there we were just a few steps from Shane's room, the room I had refused to enter; if she wanted to see him, that was good for me. I didn't even care if he ended up kicking her out (he would probably do it; he was a dick), I just wouldn't enter that room.

The doctors that had been examining him and for which Kara wasn't allowed to enter yet, came out his room and I could hear him moan with that unmistakable annoying tone, the moment they opened the door:

"Don't forget that room change I demanded! This old thing snores" he pointed with his head to the poor old man that shared room with him "I deserve privacy and eight hours of sleep, for crying out loud!"

"It's him!" Kara nudged my shoulder excitedly and I rolled my eyes; of course it was him! You could take the memory off the guy but he would still be the obnoxious, terrible, annoying stuck up little bitch.

One of the doctors gave Kara permission to enter; she gave me a questioning look and I nodded, allowing her to skip happily towards Shane's room. I found it pretty funny; she cared more for whether I gave her permission to enter than what the doctors said.

When Kara closed Shane's room's door behind her, I looked around for any signs of Brown; I had called him before coming to the hospital, telling him I had found Shane and as for what it came to me; the faster he took Shane away from the city I live in, the happier I'd be.

"Mitchie, you're here!" I heard his English accent speaking behind me and I turned around "You are here" he repeated with surprise "why are you here?"

"uhmm" I bit my lip worriedly; how was I supposed to explain him I had brought a crazy fan girl (AKA Kara) to stalk on his amnesic nephew? "Well, I kinda live nearby" I lied, hoping on heavens he wouldn't notice.

But he gave me a skeptic look that said he had noticed and he didn't believe me.

I cut out the hypocrisy "actually, my little sister Kara wanted to meet Shane… she convinced me to come" I gave him an I'm-sorry-you-busted-my-ass look and smiled, and after taking a small glance to the door of Shane's bedroom I shook my head "what am I even waiting here? I'll got tell Kara to leave Shane alone… now!"

"Wait…" Brown stopped me "are you telling me your sister's inside that room with my nephew? A fan; and he hadn't kicked her out?"

My brain synchronized with Brown's, so Shane was finally being nice at someone? It could not be true; I stuck my ear to the door and tried to listen. I could hear less than muffled echoes of the conversation they were having inside, but at least none of them was shouting. "They're having a civilized conversation" I nodded to Brown.

He had a look, the kind of look that people with bad intentions have "I have to go make a call outside" he said and he was gone before I could protest. I watched him calling on his cell phone, through a large window right in behind me, that faced Shane's door room, I imagine, adding some light to the waiting room and the hallway where I stood.

I walked from side to side of the room again and waited five more minutes before I completely lost all the patience and decided to enter the room and interrupt them; what could they possibly be talking about anyway? The boy was freakin amnesic and even if he did have his memories he didn't know Kara!

Once I stormed inside, both of them gave me curious looks "Kara, I think we should get going; Shane's uncle is here to take him home and..."

But Kara decided to ignore my words "This is Mitchie; my sister" she introduced me to Shane who instantly got a gleam of recognizing in his eyes and I wished I could drop dead right there before he could recall who I was. I took Kara by the arm and tried to drag her outside the room as she waved a happy goodbye to Shane.

"Don't worry Shane " I assured him; not to be nice with him but just to explain the situation and make clear I wasn't here for him but for Kara "your uncle Brown's right…" but I couldn't finish my sentence; I could no longer see Brown through the window "where's him?"

"Who him?" Kara asked me; luckily Shane hadn't opened his mouth at all; probably was still considering where he had seen me before.

"BROWN!" I flipped out and ran outside the hospital, leaving Kara and Shane alone again, looking at each other with confused faces; I didn't really care, there was no time for explanations I had to find Brown; he HAD to take Shane away!

When I didn't see him outside the hospital, I took out my cell phone and called him.

"Hey, Mitch!" he answered with glee; where the hell was that man? And what was him so happy about?

"Where are you?"

"Oh" he had a tone for bad news; I could recognize it everywhere "Sorry, Mitch, I have to fly to L.A. as soon as possible; would it be much to ask you if you could keep an eye on Shane for a while? I promise it won't be a long time, just a couple of weeks; I swear I'll pay you…"

"What? Are you crazy? Of course I won't…"

"Thanks, Mitch!" Brown decided to ignore me too; God! What the hell? Am I so insignificant?! "I already signed the release papers and a permission to be given to you… I swear there'll be no troubles"

"Brown, no…" I started pleading, but again, he just hanged up on me and I dropped the hand that held my cell phone down, opened my mouth wide in disbelief and realized I had just been tricked by Brown.

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	4. Much Stressed

"Much Stressed"

As he wouldn't answer any of my calls, I spent the rest of the day leaving messages in Brown's voicemail:

"_What the hell am I supposed to with Shane? You could have left me your dog to look after, but Shane? What the hell were you thinking? You're torturing me; I know you're torturing me... I swear, you don't come get him and I'll leave him to sleep on the dog's house! …and my name's not Mitch, by the way!"_

Who could really blame me? I was infuriated and not only because I didn't like Shane, but because now I had one more person to look after; and I who thought that the "surprise" my mom and dad would give me was actually a summer in Camp Rock… no, they decided to spend their money into a cruise for two all over the Caribbean and now I am meant to take care of the house, my sisters, Connie's Catering service (which is my mom who should be doing this), my job at the Burger bar and now, Shane "Rockstar" Gray!

I had already lost all hope when my phone rang and I picked it up as fast as I could; Brown had sent me a text.

"_I'm really sorry, Mitchie; I already asked to be sent to you all of Shane's clothes he had left in the yacht; I thought you had understood what I had planned for my nephew by leaving him under your…"_

"Under what?" the text message was cut right there and I hit my phone with the palm of my hand but I knew it wouldn't make a difference. I re-read the message and tried to figure out what the rest of it meant; I _thought you had understood what I had planned for my nephew…_

I texted Brown back telling him I hadn't received the message complete and he responded me with the second half:

"…_responsibility. You know very well that Shane needs something to drag him back on earth; just treat him like family. I'll come back this weekend to check on him; thanks a lot Mitchie."_

At least he was thanking me and he promised to come back on the weekend.

"You look much stressed" Amanda's little voice said, from the door of my bedroom; she was holding her usual book in her hands and gazed towards me behind her glasses, which amplified her eyes making her look like a little cute bug.

I turned to her sighing "I am much stressed"

She gave me a pity look and sat beside me in the bed "I'm really sorry you have to take care of all of us while mom is away…" she told me "but I really don't think Kara would make a better job"

I laughed "yeah, I know…"

"If it helps in any way, I promise to help you in anything I can" she raised up her hand in the air and I hugged her happily;

"Thanks, Amanda; I'll most definitely use that help now that we get a "new member" in the family"

"What do you mean?" she asked me, and I knew she was hoping for mom not to be pregnant… again.

I showed her Brown's text and told her everything about Shane Gray and how he was now in the hospital and soon would be at our house. She didn't say anything for a while; she processed it first and seemed to be connecting puzzle pieces in her head until she turned to me with a special gleam in her eyes:

"I got an idea" she told me excitedly and I knew it was a good one.

---

Brown checked his cell phone as he got out the plane into the receptions area; he had about 25 voicemails from Mitchie. He erased them, guessing what they'd all be about and started to write his reply to her (if he called she'd shout at him and that was something he didn't want). Before he could finish or send it, he heard on the distance excited shouting from girls and he knew his transport had arrived.

Nate and Jason, Shane's band mates, were walking towards him. It took them a little longer than you would expect to take in walking a few meters as they stopped from time to time to take a picture with a fan that approached them or sign a piece of paper.

"Where's Shane?" Nate asked once they finally got close enough to speak.

"Shane's in the hospital" Brown replied and both Jason and Nate looked at him shocked "but he's fine; just a little amnesic…"

Their shocked faces grew even more shocked "what do you mean amnesic?" Jason asked back.

A group of girls approached them and Brown pulled them off by the arm "this is not the place to discuss this" they walked fast out the airport and into the limo avoiding a few girls that gave them upset looks.

"So, what's this entire amnesic thing? Is he ok?" Nate asked Brown once the limo pulled off.

Brown nodded "he fell on the water accidentally and was found floating in the beach next day, but he didn't get bigger injuries than the one in his head" he explained.

"Why didn't you bring him with you?" Jason asked "if he's amnesic, he won't remember the way back home!"

Nate rolled her eyes at Jason's second comment but he agreed on his question "yeah, where's him? Who's taking care of him?"

This is when Brown showed them his guilty smile and they realized he had something going on "right now, he's in the hospital, but I've already sent someone to pick him up and take him home right tomorrow…"

His cell phone rang again, with a new voicemail from Mitchie and Brown pressed accidentally the SEND button on the text he hadn't finished for her yet.

"Is it them; who you sent to pick Shane?" Jason asked, pointing towards Brown's cell phone.

Brown nodded "her name's Mitchie" he received a text from her, where she said she hadn't received the whole message and started typing the rest.

"Mitchie; the catering girl, right?" Nate asked as he remembered a small conversation he and Shane had had just two days ago where he explained how an evil cook had caused him a horrible red spot in his forehead "but… according to what he told me, her and Shane are not much friends" he explained when Brown nodded in response.

Brown had sent the rest of the message, he directed a small smile towards them and then sighed "ok, the thing here is, I have a plan and Mitchie is helping me…" Jason and Nate had questioning looks but wouldn't interrupt him; yes, he was Shane's uncle Brown but he was also Camp Rock's director, which meant they had some special respect for him from the time they had been there "We all want the old Shane back, right? So, the fact he's amnesic is perfect; he can start over"

Nate nodded "well, it's a good point now you put it like this, but… if you want him to start over, why don't you just send him with his parents?"

"Because his parents would just spoil him; that's what parents do when you're sick" Jason surprised them all with his answer and Nate nodded again:

"But, as Mitchie is not his friend or his family… she won't" he said put loud, as all the pieces came together in his mind.

Brown smiled excitedly "Am I not a genius?"

"Can we visit him or something?" Nate made him a final question.

"Yes, of course, just remember the plan" Brown didn't find it to be a bad idea; he needed Shane to start over but he didn't want to forget about his past rockstar life entirely; he had a recording contract and they had already cancelled a summer tour.

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**This is just a little filling chapter; not much going on in here, except for Jason and Nate... now you know they will have a part in future chapters.**

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	5. Oh, Cousin, Where Art Thou?

"Oh, Cousin, Where Art Thou?"

Next morning I drove off to the hospital to pick up Shane, this time alone; he'd be released today and I was strangely excited. The plan Amanda had come up with was just perfect! I wonder how I didn't think of something like that myself; I guess I was just too much stressed as she said.

Brown had sent all of Shane's clothes last evening; they had arrived just one hour after I received his text and also, he had sent me a second text telling me Nate and Jason would make a few visits to Shane and they were on their way to the city (I don't need to tell you Kara squealed in excitement when she heard this).

So I was carrying in the passenger's seat a little backpack where Kara had put some of Shane's clean clothes (I hadn't even wanted to get close to them at all) as I sang out loud to the song on the stereo happily and tasted in my mouth the happiness of sweet, sweet vendetta. The plan Amanda had come up with had a lot to do with my stress last day, Brown's message and the fact I didn't like Shane much; I was taking Shane Gray as my personal house maid… I mean made.

So I whistled happily as I parked the van in front of the hospital, took Shane's clothes and walked inside it; I had a huge smile on my face when I spoke to the receptionist nurse "hello, I've come to pick up Shane Gray…"

The nurse looked at me like I was the cutest girlfriend picking her boyfriend from the hospital; in another moment it would have infuriated me, but today nothing could bother me "you must be Michelle Torres, am I right?"

I nodded and the nurse took me through the hallway on to the familiar door, behind which I knew Shane was lying, changing in annoyance the channels of the T.V. and moaning bitterly how there was nothing to watch. The nurse opened the door before me and entered, as I followed her "Shane, this is Michelle… she's taking you home" she spoke to him as if he had a severe mental disease and I had to suppress my laughter.

Shane glanced at me, dropping down the remote "I do not know this girl…" he complained.

I held a satisfaction smile as I sat in the edge of his bed and handed him the back pack "Don't be silly, I'm Mitchie, remember? Now go change your clothes; everybody's waiting for you at home!"

I was so happy I could imitate the nurse's you-are-mentally-unstable tone. He took the back pack in his hands and revolted inside for a while; he seemed to have recognized his clothes because he pulled off the covers of the bed and ran to the bathroom, even when he still had a skeptical look about me.

"Even when amnesic, he's just the cutest" I told the nurse with sarcasm, standing beside her and crossing my arms over my chest; she mistook my tone as she thought I was only complimenting my boyfriend.

Shane took about five minutes to change his clothes, after which time he came out the bathroom wearing his signature black skinny jeans, a white v neck shirt and a black leather jacket "Finally, decent clothes!" he exclaimed as he fixed his jacket from the neck, then he glanced at me one second more "so, you're Mitchie; I do remember you…" he told me "you're this girl... Kara's sister, right?"

I nodded, while holding a fake smile "I knew you couldn't forget me…"

The nurse was so happy I was such a nice person to Shane and so relieved I was finally taking him away from the hospital; she didn't make much but to wave goodbye to us when Shane pulled me by the arm to drag me outside after speaking in a low, disdain tone "Just get me out of here already"

"Hold on!" I freed my arm from his grab as we both followed downstairs "I can walk by myself" at that point my fake smile had vanished.

He rolled his eyes "fine, just walk fast enough…" he let go off me and I had to clam my desires to punch him flat on the face remembering myself that his "pampered rockstar" ways would be history once he set foot on my house.

The air hit us both in the face as we ran out the hospital; he looked at me with a questioning look "where's the car?"

"You don't remember the car?" I asked, mocking him "So cute!" he gave me an assassin look and I just walked in front of him, showing him the way towards the van. I noticed the disgust in his face when I opened him the passenger's seat door and he had to climb up.

"Is this thing safe?" he asked when I climbed up, on the driver's side and started the engine.

"Just put on your seatbelt and shut up" I ordered him as I drove off, back to the house.

He did as I told him, and gave me another disdain look. He stood quiet for most of the rest of the way until he turned to me with confusion in his face "I don't remember this place"

"That's because you're amnesic" I responded him as I switched stations on the radio.

"What's with the attitude?" he asked me, not really being nicer than me.

"Well, you pulled me by the arm and were rude to me first" I replied "what do you want me to do? I was being nice and all…"

"Ok, sorry" he shrugged his shoulders as he turned to the window, watching the houses we passed by; we were home within minutes.

"Do you remember this?" I asked him as I parked the van

He climbed off the van and closed the door behind him, glanced a little while over the house and shook his head "I should have a little memory of this place, at least…"

I faked an understanding look and told him in a comforting voice "It's too soon yet…"

He looked at me then "it's weird; I don't have memories of this place…" he started "but I do remember you"

I froze a second, scared he might have remembered me and would find out about the lie, but he noticed I had been taken aback by his comment and added:

"I mean, I don't completely remember you… it's more like, I know I knew you from before the accident"

I nodded and smiled; I had found the perfect lie in my head while he spoke "well, that's probably because you saw me yesterday too; you'll get used to he house in a while, I guess… you haven't been here in years anyway, so it's not a surprise you don't remember much of it"

"So, I don't live here?" he asked me and I shook my head.

"You live in L.A.; only came here to take an eye on us while mom and dad are on their "second honey moon"" He made a disgusted face "yeah, I know…" I agreed.

Suddenly, we heard screams from inside the house and I instantly knew the twins were causing mayhem "why don't we go inside? They're all excited to see you"

He nodded, a little doubtful and followed me to the entrance; inside, the screams were louder and clearer and I could distingue Amanda shouting to Allie to hand back her book and Kara trying to stop her and Annie from climbing on the couch.

"Girls, we're home!" I shouted and the house turned into a sudden silence and one second later Kara, the twins and Amanda were aligned, one next to another in front of us.

"Now I see what you meant with "us"" Shane spoke in my ear and I laughed.

"You remember Kara?" I started introducing the girls to Shane; he nodded and smiled to Kara as she waved her hand happily towards him "now, that one is Amanda" she nodded politely, before studying him with her eyes (I could tell he felt uncomfortable by the sound of his shy "hey") "and those two over there are the twins; Annie and Allie" the girls laughed at him when he waved his hand to them and exchanged accomplice looks; they were surely planning already a prank to pull on him and I cannot tell you how proud I am of my little girls.

"It's good to have you home, Cousin Shane" Amanda took a step towards him after a few seconds and winked towards me when he wasn't looking; she took his hand and dragged him to the living room "I bet you have a lot of questions to ask us…"

He looked at me with a confused face, but I didn't do much to tranquilize him "Ok, girls, be nice to Shane, remember he's sick! I'll be back at five!"

Shane let go off Amanda's hand "Where are you going?" he asked me and I knew he was just terrified to be left alone with all those girls he didn't know.

"I have to work" I replied to him, shrugging my shoulders from the entrance door "don't worry; you're in good hands"

I closed the door behind me and laughed my way to the van; amnesic guys are so easy to trick!

---

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	6. Your List of Things to Do

"Your list of things to do"

"Where are you going?!" Shane asked with desperation as he heard Mitchie waving goodbye to the girls; one of them was holding his hand trying to pull him around the house.

""I have to work, don't worry; you're in good hands"" she replied and closed the door giving him one last smile; he could swear it wasn't exactly a friendly smile, but a mock.

"You heard her" The little Amanda told him pulling his hand with a little more force; he finally gave in and let the girl conduce him to where she wanted him to go, while the two little creepy twins and that weird girl, Kara, that wouldn't stop smiling and staring at him followed them.

She first took him upstairs and showed him the room he'd be staying in.

"This is mom and dad's bedroom, but you can stay here while they're out" she told him "your clothes are in that duffle bag next to the bed"

He nodded in understanding, and then the girl pulled him downstairs again.

"Now, you can start by doing the lawn" she explained as she opened the door to the backyard and pointed to and old trimmer with her little head.

He gave him a questioning look "start with the lawn?"

"You're not here just for vacation, Shane; my parents left you in charge of the house…" she replied "and that means YOU'RE IN CHARGE"

Amanda strode back inside the house, followed by the twins that gave him a last look and giggled at his clueless face, on the other hand, Kara would just stay there giving him a smile "I can help you if you want…"

He shook his head, maybe a little too fast "No, thank you, I think I can do it"

---

(Mitchie's POV)

I arrived home, whistling my way to the door: I had been in such a good mood today at the Burger Bar and had been so nice to customers, the manager was sure I was getting the "employee of the month" title this time.

I heard no noises inside the house when I crossed the door, which was unusual given Annie and Allie are always causing mayhem, the only noises I could distinct after a few seconds were small whispers from the living room.

"You think he's dead?" I heard Allie asking Kara as she picked on Shane's arm; he looked like he was in a deep state of shock, sitting almost unconsciously in a chair mumbling something under his breath, his hair was covered in an orange-ish substance just like the rest of him. The twins, Kara and Amanda gathered around him.

I didn't know whether to laugh or feel worried about the guy "What happened?" I asked them as I approached to check on Shane.

"He tried to make dinner" Amanda replied to me, as she pushed her glasses up her nose "the pot seems to have exploded on him"

I suppressed laughter as I directed the twins a significant look: that "pot explosion" was one of their old tricks; they'll just add a few effervescent pills on the soup while people were not watching.

"You think he's dead, Mitchie?" Annie turned to ask me, I had to cut off my thoughts and my smile and approached Shane. He was not dead, of course, only shocked, possibly desperate but surely tired.

"He's not dead, don't worry; just give him some space to take some air" I responded and started moving the girls away from him; they all retired to their rooms or former activities and I just stood there watching Shane for my own please.

It was funny watching the little Mr. Celebrity with his designer clothes covered in fail soup; he had this desperate look upon me that begged for help, I wasn't really helping him of course; this is my time for revenge "Tough day?" I asked him.

He sighed and nodded, his eyes open wide still for the shock.

"Well, you can take a small time to relax before you go clean the kitchen; you made a mess there" I told him, tasting the sweetness of revenge in every word and smiling with satisfaction when he looked at me with dismay. Poor boy, if only he hadn't been such a dick! "And by the way; I forgot to tell you; I cook" I added, trying to avoid another kitchen disaster; one had been funny but either I or Shane needed more mess.

It took Shane about fifteen minutes to finally get to stand up and walk to the kitchen; I followed him, he held the sweep with difficulty and started cleaning the floor. I passed him a bucket with water and floor soap (how sweet and kind I am!) and then walked off the kitchen leaving the poor Shane cleaning.

I sat down and relaxed while I watched T.V. for while, with a smile on my face; Dr. House had never been so entertaining. Soon I stopped listening to Shane cleaning on the kitchen and I heard the echo of his "Ferragamo" shoes walking upstairs to take a bath; I stood up and walked to the, now, bright clean kitchen and got into cooking dinner as I knew the girls would soon be hungry.

----

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I asked terrified when I passed by the washing room half an hour later and I saw Shane grabbing hold of my pink underwear.

"The laundry" he replied at me, swinging the piece of clothing in front of my face; I took it off his hands at once "My clothes will ruin if I don't get this soup off them…"

"Well, do your own laundry; I can do mine" I said as I tried to hide the deep red color in my cheeks; I cleared my throat "the dinner's ready, if you're hungry"

He nodded and stuffed his pants and his shirt on the laundry machine and hanged his fresh cleaned black jacket.

I could hear a small giggle from his mouth as he walked behind me towards the kitchen after I had thrown my underwear back on the laundry basket; I turned over my shoulder to give him a dirty look.

"I'm sorry" he apologized right away and cleared his throat.

"You better be; I can sue you for sexual harassment" I replied in my worst angry tone and even the smallest hint of a smile vanished from his face.

I called out for the girls and started serving the meatballs I had prepared and putting the plates on the table; Shane offered to help me but I pushed him back on his chair "I don't want another mess"

The truth is I was still ashamed about the pink underwear incident.

The rest of the dinner moved on like a normal Torres' family dinner: Amanda was telling me about the new book she had been reading, the twins started a fork fight and Kara just drooled over Shane, telling him fake stories of their happy childhood as "best cousins"; he only nodded at her with a thoughtful look and I knew he was squeezing his mind for those lost memories Kara had been telling him about.

After a few minutes I thought I should intervene before Shane would hurt himself "So, Shane, your uncle Brown will be here over the weekend" I told him; possibly the name "Brown" would ring some bells and he wouldn't feel so clueless.

"Brown…" he repeated, biting his lower lip and then nodded "I think I remember that name…"

"You should; you live with him" I replied as I stood up from the table "Also, I think you'll have some visitors tomorrow" I added remembering Brown's text about Shane's band mates coming to see him "Your friends had been told about your amnesia and wanted to come; Jason and Nate, remember them?"

---

**I've got one more chapter done and I'm writing another right now, if you want me to update tomorrow, just leave a review**


	7. ReConnection

"Re-Connection"

The next day I received Nate and Jason at 12 p.m. just as they said; luckily Kara had gone bowling with her friends so the house would be free from exciting squeals and such.

Shane was still having a bath after cleaning tide the whole house; I had told him to leave it bright clean for HIS visitors (my little Cinderella), when I opened the door.

"Come in, Shane will be down in a minute" I told them with a smile; I still have this huge poster of connect 3 in my bedroom and their latest CD, the fact I hate Shane doesn't make me change my mind of Jason or Nate, after all they look to be nicer than him.

"Thank you" Nate replied to me, smiling back; he and Jason settled in one of the couches of the living room, looking around with curiosity (Jason more than Nate).

"So, you're Mitchie…" Nate tried to break the awkward silence after a few seconds; I nodded in response "It's really nice of you that you're taking care of Shane while he's… hum, sick" he told me, trying to be polite.

I rolled my eyes "well, I didn't have a choice; Brown practically dropped him on my door" I stated truthfully, as a result Nate gave me a questioning look and Jason dropped his eyes back on me, finally taking them off that small pottery elephant that my mom kept in the book shelf.

"Brown said you were helping him" Nate stated, dumfounded by my response.

I puffed "he made me help him; I had not way out of it. Was either that or Shane would've ended up sleeping on a park bench"

"Why would I sleep on a park bench?" a male voice asked behind me and I turned to find Shane on the entrance of the living room.

"SHANE!" Jason ran towards him and hugged him happily. I suppressed my laughter behind a smile as Nate stood up and rolled his eyes before taking Shane off Jason's arms:

"You're killing him"

"Sorry" Jason giggled "you remember me, Shane? No, of course you don't… you're amnesic; but you should remember me, we're like brothers!"

Shane looked at me with questioning eyes and I knew the poor guy was lost: like I hadn't seen that face for two days now "Shane, these are Jason and Nate, your best friends" I explained him, giggling.

"Sup, man; how are you feeling?" Nate asked him as he gave him a small male hug, nothing like Jason' tackle.

"Good, I suppose…" he replied "at least I can recall knowing you two…" Shane scratched his head clumsily as he tried to put a few pieces in its place in his head.

They didn't throw any significant look at me or anything like that, but I knew it was my time to leave them alone so I just excused myself and left to my room. Most of what they spoke is a mystery to me.

---

"She's kind of cute, isn't she?" Nate asked Shane sitting back on the couch when Mitchie left.

"Mitchie?" Shane asked; he shrugged his shoulders when Nate nodded in response "I guess… it's not really like I should care whether she's cute or not as she's my cousin"

"Cousin?" Jason asked with shock "I didn't know you had a cousin!" Nate sank his elbow down his ribs "I knew you had a cousin, I'm just kidding… you have a lot of cousins" he giggled nervously, rubbing his ribs in the place where Nate had hit him.

Shane looked at him both his friends with confusion "is there something wrong?" he thought there was; if Mitchie was right and they were his BEST friends, then they should've known about his cousins, right?

"No" Nate replied right away; just a second less and it wouldn't have been believable "the things is, you hadn't came to visit your family for a while"

Shane nodded "I know; I have a hard time remembering this place or the people… except for Mitchie, but that's probably because she's the only mid-normal person in the whole house"

The talk was interrupted by Amanda, who walked inside the living room to take a new book from the shelf and leave the old one she had finished reading back in its place "Good day, gentlemen" she nodded politely before leaving the room with a copy of "A series of unfortunate events".

"You see what I mean?" Shane asked Nate and Jason when Amanda had gone upstairs towards her room; they both had identical confused faces "that's Amanda and she's behind Mitchie on the most normal girls; you haven't seen Annie and Allie yet, they're like baby versions of the Weasley twins… and that Kara girl: she freaks me out, she's always following me around. I tell you you're lucky she went out"

"There are more of them?" Jason asked with dismay. Nate couldn't help but hitting his ribs once again.

"So, what about our music?" he asked, changing the conversation theme "you remember anything about it?"

"Our music?" Shane repeated.

Nate and Jason nodded "we had a band"

"That explains the guitar case in my bedroom" he replied "were we any good?"

"You have no idea…" Jason answered, giving him a significant look and escaped another rib hit from Nate.

Shane nodded distractedly, he hadn't heard Jason's response; he could hear Mitchie doing something in the kitchen "the weird thing is... Mitchie's not really kind to me" he stated, scratching his head, like it was supposed to be an inner thought instead of an out loud sentence coming from his mouth "I can tell she's having fun by making me work on the house; she's not... nice to me"

Nate sighed, aware of teh fact he couldn't "discover the plan" out to Shane; "Well, you never were quite nice to her; she's just mad at you about it, you can't just expect her to be good at you if you never did"

Shane nodded in uderstanding; so he and Mitchie didn't get along? That could explain the fact she would smile to see him covered in soup after being victim of one of the twin's pranks. It really made sense and expllained the hostility she had kept on him ever since he had left the hospital and how she would allow Kara to harass him and the twins to play jokes on him. Maybe all he needed was to be nicer at her, at least for once.

"Guys?" Mitchie dipped her head in from the corner of the living room door "I made lunch in case you're hungry…"

Shane and the boys stood up right away "oh, thanks Mitchie"

"I'm sorry, I'm such a bad host; I forgot to ask them Mitchie; thank you" Shane said before he smiled at the guys and made them follow him to the kitchen.

Nate's jaw fell on the floor as he followed Shane; "I'm sorry", "I'm such a bad host" and "thank you" were not phrases he was used to hear from Shane's mouth, at least not in the last three months. He gave a questioning look to Jason, who just shrugged his shoulders; if this wasn't a miracle then Mitchie had to be some sort of Nanny 911.

"How come you read so fast?" Jason exclaimed a few minutes later; Amanda was sitting in front of him taking the egg rolls that Mitchie had prepared for lunch and reading "A series of Unfortunate Events", she had only been reading for about half an hour and she was already in the middle of the book.

She rolled her eyes giving Jason a look that went between pity and confusion "I have been genetically modified to move my eyes fifty percent faster than the rest of the humans?" she joked.

"That's so cool!" Jason exclaimed excitedly and Amanda laughed.

"You're funny" she told him and then turned to Nate "he's joking right?"

---

**YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO!**


	8. Cold Water

"Cold Water"

Next morning I decided to play a little (more) with our own pop star and woke up earlier than usual to wake him up in a special "Mitchie Torres" way.

"Wha-What the FU--?!" Shane asked out as the freezing cold water that I had just poured in his head made its work and woke him up suddenly.

"You gotta take the twins to their summer course" I stated out with a smirk when he gave me a shocked and angry look.

"I don't care!" he shouted at me and rolled in the bed to give me his back.

"Fine" I shrugged my shoulders "then they'll just spend the whole day with you" Instantly he turned again to see me, this time the shock in his face was combined with fear; I suppressed my laughs and walked off the room so he could change into proper clothes.

---

"Why don't you take the twins to summer course?" he asked me as he pinched bitterly the waffles I had just prepared for breakfast.

"Because I've got something else to do" I replied with a small shrug from my shoulders "Nate wants to talk to me, so I'm gonna meet him for lunch"

"NATE?" Shane asked out as if I had thrown another bucket of cold water at him

"Yeah, Nate" I responded; I really hadn't given it much importance, he would probably want to talk to me about Shane and his condition.

"Well, I should've seen it coming; he found you cute" he shrugged his shoulders while chewing noisily the waffles "Just be careful, I don't remember if this guy is reliable…"

"He said I was cute?" I turned around, maybe a little too excited, but well, how many times in your lifetime you're told that one of your favorite pop stars finds you pretty? But before he could even nod to answer me I was hit by his second sentence; I puffed out mocking him "What? Are you jealous?"

He swallowed fast enough to clear me "No, I'm not jealous" he faked a puff "but as I should remember you I am in charge and I should take care of you…"

"You're wrong" I explained "You're here to take care of the twins and Amanda; I am old enough to take care of myself… and in case you haven't noticed, you're not in charge, you're just cleaning around, Shane"

He stood up from his chair to protest, but when he opened his mouth he had to close it again as he knew I was right, as much as he hated it.

"Good, you understood" I gave him a victorious smile and dropped the last waffle on my own plate, buttered it up and ate it calmly. When I was done with it I left the dirty plate on the sink; he could wash them off later.

"I assume you know how to take a bus" I said as I threw him a few bucks enough to go and come back from the summer course.

He gave me a defiant look, but I wouldn't retribute it; I had better things to do now and they had a lot to do with Nate.

"Fine, I'll have to go to work after meeting Nate; I'll be back to make dinner as usual" I announced and left after Amanda had given me a brief goodbye; the twins both shouted goodbyes to me while they passed by me running in frenzy… as for Kara, she was still asleep.

---

Nate's meeting in the Starbucks downtown hadn't been as interesting as Shane had told me; Jason was there too and they would only thank me for having and taking care of Shane, even when they knew I pretty much hated him. Also they gave me some money for food and such and asked my permission to visit him again over the week.

You heard that? They asked MY permission to visit their amnesic friend! Wow, if only Shane was half as nice as them…

Of course I wouldn't deny them anything; anyway it would be just one week before Brown would pick up his cousin to take him home.

So, after I had taken the last sip of my cappuccino that so nicely Nate offered to pay for me, I went to work, as happy as I had been the last two days; not only I had a pop star doing the vacuuming in my house and all other kinds of housework, but now I had another one paying my coffee, am I not lucky?

"I'm home!" I announced happily as I crossed the door; it was the second time I found the house in complete silence so I knew exactly were to go; the living room.

Once again, the girls gathered around a paralyzed Shane Gray, with a curiosity that was almost morbid, for the twins I knew it was plain fun when Annie started throwing Shane some grapes:

"He needs food!" she exclaimed, but the grapes would land in his forehead, not even close to his mouth "This is fun!"

"Leave him alone" Kara pleaded trying to push the girls away from him, just so they would stop throwing things at him "give him some air!"

"What's going on?" I asked, giving suspicious looks towards the twins; one nervous breakdown had been funny, but two? In 3 days? That was very dangerous, even worse given his health state.

"He tried cleaning the attic" Amanda responded as she passed by me on her way to her bedroom "he's getting better though"

"Yeah, he's no longer doing bah, bah, bah" the twins started imitating the noise happily as they danced around the room.

"Ok, shut up" I ordered and they stopped, even moved over when I leaned closer to Shane to check on him.

"Shane?" I asked him but he wouldn't change his expression "did you wash the dishes?" my words were not exactly of comfort. Five seconds later, Shane's mouth started moving repeatedly making him let out a "buh" noise.

The twins started dancing around and imitating the noise again.

I turned to Kara with concern; at least last time he had looked at me when I spoke to him "I'm afraid I have no choice" I told her and she retrieved me the concern look "You take his feet" I ordered her and the concern changed into horror.

"You're not…" she started mumbling, but I had already taken Shane by placing my arms under his armpits so she had to rush to take his feet before I would let him fall.

"We'll have to use Granny Torres' method" I nodded in response for her unfinished question and the twins let out excitement squeals as they walked beside me celebrating what was about to come, Kara kept the horror in her face but still she helped me dragging Shane out the house and placed his feet inside the water barrel that we had in the backyard and that we used to water the plants; I dropped the rest of Shane inside and it took a small second for him to react and come back into surface.

"HE'S ALIVE!" the twins celebrated and ran back inside the house when Kara mumbled under his breath some threat and ran after them.

"Feeling better?" I asked Shane as he pushed his wet hair away from his face; he gave a dismay look.

"I do not belong here" he said, gasping for air.

I almost felt bad for the guy in the water barrel "why don't you go take a bath or something? Relax and we'll talk later…" he nodded and I helped him out of the barrel "No, no, no; no wet clothes inside the house" I stopped him before he could enter soaking all over the place.

He turned around and started striping down his clothes off himself with tiredness

"Whoa, whoa! Wait till I go inside!" I exclaimed as I covered my eyes with my hands and passed over him on my way inside.

I'm not very sure, but I think I heard him laugh.

---

"How's him?" Amanda whispered, looking up from her book; she had finished "A Series of Unfortunate Events" already and was now seizing a copy of "The Catcher in The Rye"; if it had been Kara who had thought on reading it, I would've protested saying it was too much for her age, but not for Amanda… sometimes I wondered if Amanda wasn't the 13 year old instead.

"He's better" I replied with a whisper as I took a small glance at the kitchen, where I knew Shane was "He's doing the dishes now…"

She gave a small understanding nod and turned back to her book; it hadn't been more than 30 seconds since I had responded her question when Shane stormed inside the room.

He started opening random doors at the bookshelf looking for something.

"What are you doing?" I asked him as I barely shuffled my crossed legs.

"Looking for pictures" he stated closing violently the small door he had just opened "the doctor said that it would help me remember better…"

It was then, I realized I didn't have any of those, of course; it wouldn't be possible if I had never met Shane before the yacht incident "Pictures?" I repeated, trying to keep some calm on my body.

He nodded looking at me, of course he had just realized there was no one better than me to give him information about where they could possibly be, if it was that there were any of them "yeah, do you have them or not?"

I nodded in response, not sure of what I was doing "of course we have photos of you!" I faked a puff "but… I don't really remember where could they be… why don't you go take some sleep; you had a rough day; I'll call mom to ask if she knows where they are and I'll have them for you first time in the morning"

He seemed dumbfounded by my sudden niceness and nodded in acceptance "ok" he muttered, scratching his head and yawning; he WAS sleepy as I had woken him up almost at 5 a.m. just to torture the poor guy. I heard him walking upstairs before taking out my cell phone and dialing a known number in almost panic:

"Nate?" I spoke on the cell phone and heard the guy reply with a "hi, Mitchie" before I added in desperation "Please tell me you know how to use photoshop!"

---

**A/N: So, I'm gonna need at least one little review to post next chapter**

**Please, people, apply some pressure!**


	9. Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!

**A/N: Please forgive me for taking so long! I swear I will update again tomorrow even if I have to type all night.**

"Sorry, Sorry, Sorry!"

"That's us on Camp Rock!" Nate explained Shane, showing him a picture of them, outside a cabin, shoulder-hugging Jason "You gotta remember Camp Rock!"

I had to thank Kara for the thousands and thousand of Connect 3 pictures she had in her computer, such as her talent using photoshop; she and Nate were a lot of help, as he brought some pictures of when Shane was a kid, to make the thing more believable.

Shane took the picture in his hand and observed it for a while; I noticed a small hint of recognition in his eyes. Nate and Jason exchanged smiles as they had seen it too.

"That's us the last time you visited" Kara handed Shane a picture she had edited, in which she was shown as a 7 year old, shoulder hugging a 10 year old Shane; it was actually a picture of me and Kara, she had carefully replaced me. Luckily we were almost the same age and at that time we were barely the same height.

"Why aren't there any pictures of you?" Shane asked me after Kara had shown him a dozen pictures of him and the girls were I had been replaced.

"She burnt them" Nate responded for me "you know you were a real pain in the ass for poor Mitchie…" he faked an ashamed look as he placed himself behind me to put his hands in my shoulders for support.

"Oh, really?" Shane asked me; I nodded in response, trying to look live a victim, which was hard given the laughter I was holding back; it was highly entertaining to look at Shane's ashamed face.

I had to leave the place before I would just crack up in laughter, so I stood up, like it had been a real awkward moment "I'm gonna get some soda… anyone wants something to drink?"

But the only answer I got was from Shane's mouth "I'm sorry"

When I turned to face him, he had bloodshot eyes; Oh my God! He wasn't crying, was he?

"It's ok" I calmed him down before he would start sobbing "It was a long time ago, I really shouldn't have been so bitter about it…"

I stopped talking when I felt Shane's arms around me; he was hugging me!

I looked at Nate over his shoulder, with a confused look, but he was trying to avoid laughing so hard his face was red; he was obviously not helping me out of the situation.

Suddenly, as Shane let go off me with a warm smile, I realized I was starting to feel remorse. I felt like punching him in the face then, because he probably thought he was taking a huge weight off his shoulders, when what he really was doing was shoving it up on mines.

"Nate, would you help me?" I asked, to the second guy I had to punch; he was still giving me and Shane a significant look.

"Sure" he cleared his throat, trying to change his smirk into a more serious look and followed me to the kitchen "what happened?" he asked me once we made sure nobody could listen (Jason was a great help, because he started playing in his guitar a song he had written for his special friend, "Cathy the canary")

"I think we should tell him the truth" I responded him, not really aware of how worried I looked.

"Are you crazy? Why?" he asked me

"I cannot keep lying to him; It doesn't feel right" I bit my lip

"Probably, but, did you hear him? He actually told you he was sorry! He even hugged you!" Nate was really good at saying convincing speeches, I can tell you; he could be a politician "if you tell him the truth now, all the progress he's made yet will vanish; he'll hate you again and possibly even hate me… he's gonna turn into Shane "jerk" Gray again! Besides, if he hasn't remembered himself, I doubt he'd believe you"

Nate had a point, but I still felt like shit… a lying shit.

"Look" he must've noticed my worry, because he would speak to me with a calming tone "just follow the game till Brown comes to pick Shane, it will be in just a couple of days anyway; he will eventually gain back his memory and then he will hate you again, possibly more than he already did and you wont have to feel guilty anymore, okay?"

I nodded in acceptance "ok"

---

I had a real hard time trying to sleep that night; I couldn't stop thinking on how Shane (the Shane I had met on the yacht, not this new "snuggle bunny" I had living in my house, anyway) would react when and if he found out who I really was and that I had been treating him, the "oh, so famous pop star" as nothing more than a nanny/maid.

At 3 a.m. I got tired of picturing myself being chopped off, violently into pieces by a chainsaw operated by a considerably angry Shane Gray and did what most people with trouble sleeping would do: go grab a glass of water.

I wasn't really surprised to see that someone else had trouble sleeping that night too:

"Hey" Shane whispered as I entered the kitchen to find him sitting on the table, with a glass of cold water standing in front of him.

"Can't sleep?" I asked him the obvious as I opened the fridge to take out a pitcher and pouring some water in a glass for myself.

He nodded in response when I sat in front of him "I had this weird dream…"

"Really?" I asked him, almost sarcastically, after sipping from my water.

"Yeah" Shane obviously hadn't gotten my sarcastic tone, because he started explaining me his dream, like I cared "I am on some sort of stage, and there's all these people shouting…"

I was glad it was dark so he didn't notice how my face turned from indifferent to worried and suddenly felt the urge of drowning myself in the water in front of me; Shane was remembering something, so it was just a matter of time before he would realize I was not his cousin and of course he was not supposed to do all the housework I had made him do.

I shrugged my shoulders instead "maybe it had something to do with the band you have with Jason and Nate..."

Shane shook his head "there was no Jason and Nate in the dream, trust me, if they had been I wouldn't have gotten this sudden lost of sleepiness… instead, I was singing with you"

I almost choke with the small sip of water I had been taking "What?! ME?"

He nodded "I think it must have something to do with the fact I was such a jerk to you" he stated "trust me, I wish I could remember all those things I did to you so I could apologize properly…"

"I told you; it's ok" I stood up from the table desperately; I just wished he would stop trying to apologize for something he hadn't even done.

"Sorry I bothered you…"

"Would you just stop apologizing?" I screamed in desperation and ran upstairs; it was then when I realized I had been speaking in such a high voice I had managed to get Amanda and Kara to wake up.

They both gave me identical questioning looks, but I was not in the mood for questions or giving them any answers either.

I just entered my bedroom, shutting the door closed behind me.

---

**What do you think? Please let me know in your reviews...**

**And please, check out my new Smitchie "When You're Around", which is the reason I hadn't updated this one before.**


	10. Shane's Day Off

**A/N: Another chapter, as I promised you!**

"Shane's Day Off"

Mitchie shouted to Shane that he could take a break today and leave all the housework for her; she would do it when she came back from working.

So there he was, sitting in the living room, switching positions almost every five seconds.

He should've been relaxing, but he couldn't. Maybe it was the fact Amanda was the only one sitting in the living room (reading, as usual) besides him; the girl made him very uncomfortable still, he thought it wasn't normal a girl her age to just devour books the way she did.

"What are you reading?" he asked Amanda, trying to break the awkward silence.

The girl looked up from her book and he noticed the silence had only been awkward for him, as she had preferred to keep on reading with no stupid questions interrupting her (the name of the book was on the cover and Shane could easily read it, he didn't need to ask).

"The Lord of The Rings" Amanda replied "have you read it?"

Shane shook his head "at least not that I remember…"

"Oh, yeah; I forgot you were amnesic" Amanda stated and turned back to her book. He was taken aback by the little delicacy with which she had brought his disease, like she didn't mind it much. If she was a part of his family, she would've been more worried, or at least apologize! "What?" She brought her look back up on Shane as she had felt him staring at her with shock.

"Well… don't you… feel a little bad about me?" he asked, scratching his head, sure that he sounded completely pathetic.

"No" the girl shrugged her shoulders "You will gain back your memory"

Shane nodded, accepting her answer. He stood up from the couch and walked to somewhere else, anywhere where that little creepy girl wouldn't be; her or any of her sisters. Luckily, the twins were in their summer course.

After he realized that the only possible "girl free" space he could have was actually the bedroom he had been staying, he decided to lock himself there. He walked from one side to the other inside the room and thought that maybe it wasn't such a bad idea adopting Amanda's hobbie and grabbing a book now that he had nothing to do; the place was boring him to death.

He was even considering disobeying Mitchie and start moping!

He sat in his bed and as he tapped with desperation his foot on the floor, he hit something wooden and solid. He looked under the bed to find his guitar suitcase and pulled it off; now he had something to do that wasn't scratching his head.

He started strumming the strings, tuning the guitar. Possibly music would help him remember better…

"SHANE!" Kara shouted out from outside his bedroom, as she hit the door violently, as a result Shane broke one of the strings in his guitar.

He puffed (can't a man have privacy, for god's sake?) and opened the door "Yes, Kara?"

"I heard music! Are you playing?" she asked with excitement.

"Well, I was trying to, but I just broke a string of my guitar…" he responded with annoyance, trying to make a small point on Kara, but as usual, she would be too excited to REALLY listen to him at all:

"Mitchie must have some spare ones in her bedroom"

Suddenly, Shane felt actually interested for what Kara was saying "Mitchie plays guitar?"

"And keyboards" she nodded happily in response "and she sings; she's really good, but mom keeps on saying no whenever she asks her to let her go to Camp Rock…"

"Camp Rock?" second interesting thing Kara had told him; she nodded again.

"She's been dreaming of going for years now"

Shane sat in the edge of his bed, with a thoughtful look "But I went to Camp Rock; why won't Aunt Connie let Mitchie go?"

Kara put her hands in her mouth immediately, noticing she had said something she didn't have to and raced off "Sorry, just forget about it, ok? Mitchie will kill me if she finds out I told you!"

As he looked at the now empty door frame, Shane understood why he hadn't come to visit his "cousins" in a long time.

---

"Hey, dude, Kara told us you were playing!" Jason greeted Shane happily; as usual, they had come to visit half an hour before Mitchie would come back from work.

"Well, I gotta admit I'm not doing very well…" Shane responded, as he gave Nate a small man hug "I broke some strings of my guitar, maybe I should follow Kara's advice and borrow some from Mitchie…"

"What are you waiting for, then?" Nate asked him "as me and Jason are here too, we can play something together, like in the old times"

Shane nodded in response and moved upstairs in direction for Mitchie's bedroom; he would have to thank her about the spare strings later.

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" he asked out loud once he entered Mitchie's bedroom; there was a huge poster above her bed… of him, with Nate and Jason!

His scream made his friends run upstairs too; they got identical shocked faces when they saw what Mitchie had pinned in her wall.

"What the hell is this?" Shane asked Nate, grabbing him by the shirt with one hand and pointing to the poster in the wall with the other "why does Mitchie have a picture of us?"

Jason started laughing then, which caused Nate and Shane to look at him "what's so funny, dude?" the curly haired asked him, as he cracked up in laughter to the point were he was on the floor, hitting with his fist.

"She… has… a… Connect 3… poster!" Jason replied, from the floor, between laughs "This… is… brilliant! You should look at your faces right now!"

"It's not funny, you idiot!" Shane grabbed him by the neck of his shirt, pulling him up "it's freaky! Why does Mitchie have a… poster of us? She hates me, remember?"

Jason, stopped laughing, but he kept his signature childish smile "Nate gave it to her, duh!"

Nate, who had been worrying all this time about Jason spoiling it all, felt relieved when he heard his friend's lie "yeah, I made this poster to promote our band" he intervened "Mitchie liked it and I gave it to her…"

"Oh" Shane nodded in understanding "yeah… it makes sense now…" he found the spare strings he needed, next to Mitchie's computer and grabbed them. He left, after giving the poster a last look; he had to admit Nate was awesome at editing, as the picture could easily pass as a studio shot.

He was changing the broken string in his guitar when Mitchie came back from work and entered the house: "Ok, now, what did you do to Shane?" she asked, thinking that the silence that invaded the house had something to do with Shane having a third anxiety attack "Oh, Nate, Jason… I didn't know you were here!" she exclaimed once she entered the living room; the three guys were holding their guitars.

"Hey, Mitchie!" Jason waved a hand at her happily and she waved back "hope you don't mind we're rehearsing…"

"No" she shook her head "It's ok… I'll just go make dinner…"

"I'll help you!" Nate offered, putting his own guitar away and running to catch up with her "while Shane finishes changing the strings of his guitar…"

"Ok" Mitchie accepted; Nate obviously wanted to tell her something important.

They both headed to the kitchen and Shane watched them leave; of course! Now he knew why Mitchie had that Connect 3 poster over her bed. She and Nate had something! Nate had admitted thinking of Mitchie as a "pretty cute" girl and don't think he hadn't noticed those little times when he would pretend to help her just so they took small escapes into the kitchen!

Shane wasn't worried or jealous, anyway. Well, maybe he was a little bit, but he had the right to; in a cousin way, of course.

---

**Now, I'm gonna make all of you hate me haha!  
The thing is, in about 24 hours I will be taking a plane to another city and I think I won't be able to update in aproximatedly two weeks time, so I'm gonna ask you to be VERY patient; I will continue with this fic, probably even update again later today.**

**PLEASE REVIEW! and if you get the chance, check out my other Smitchie "When You're Around"**

**Thank you for reading, and so long! (if I don't get to update later).**


	11. Like a Child

**A/N: I know I suck for not updating before and I know I've promised I won't take long to update like 4 times before, so this time I won't promise you that... because i know, i probably won't be able to (school sucks) but I will try.**

"Like a Child"

I came back from work and picking up the twins at their summer course that day with the news that Shane had seen my Connect 3 poster; from a very amused Nate who kept on giving me significant looks that drove me to finally hit him in the arm so he would stop giving me looks and laughing at me; he had to get over it, I was a fan of Connect 3, but didn't he have millions of loud, obsessed, crazy fans? I mean, I have Kara living with me, don't think I don't know what these girls are like.

And well, yeah, I have to admit I once went to one of their concerts and to a signing… but I was just accompanying Kara, I swear.

Anyway, Nate made me mad so I shouted out to Shane that he had to wash the dishes; his day off was over.

And then, to add some spice to the formula, I handed the twins a bottle of "Super Glue" and winked an eye to them: I needed to laugh and I knew they could do magic with that little bottle.

"And Shane, would you bring me a piece of the cake that's on the fridge, please?" I asked him when he dropped down his guitar and walked to the kitchen, highly bummed; I knew he didn't want to leave his little "jam session", but I also knew that he still felt guilty about all those "years of misfortune" he had caused me, so he would do all I asked him. "Anyone else wants some cake?" I asked to Jason and Nate; it wasn't a surprise that Jason nodded right away "would you bring a piece for Jason too?" I asked Shane, faking a polite smile and he sighed but nodded right away.

I knew I was being a bitch and I knew that just as yesterday, it would someday backfire to my face in the form of sleepless nights, Shane's hatred and my soul going straight to hell.

It didn't take long, till the twins would appear (apparently coming from the kitchen) on the living room, giggling happily, seconds later a not-so-happy Shane shouting was heard, in the kitchen.

"Those little devils!" Shane appeared in the living room too, his hands stuck to two small plates, that obviously were intended for the cake he was supposed to bring me and Jason; he showed us his hand-plates with indignation "look what they did to my hands!"

His face turned a deeper shade of red when he heard us all laughing at him, it obviously wasn't the answer he expected from us.

"UGH!" he groaned out loud at us and ran back to the kitchen.

I high fived the twins and Nate gave me another significant look; Jason was still on the floor, hitting it with his hand as he barely could breath due to his heavy laughter.

I was still laughing when out of nowhere, I felt a rush of water on the side of my neck "what?" I turned around and saw Shane seizing (with difficulty, given the plates he had stuck to his fingers) a hose in my direction, with a satisfaction smile in his face.

"How do you like that, huh?" he asked us as he passed the hose from my face to Nate's, who ceased laughing at me, then he went for Jason and the twins; after a few seconds, our indignation turned into laughs.

Nate, Jason and me stood up and tried to get hold of Shane's hose, but he was faster than us and incidentally, the fact he had a hose that he pointed on our faces made it a lot harder.

It didn't occur to me, until thirty seconds later, that we were playing… we were like little kids running around the living room, whilst Shane got us all soaked.

"Ok, ok, I give up!" I raised my hands up in a sign of resignation and dropped myself in the floor. There was water dripping down my hair and nose, my stomach hurt but I could hardly stop laughing; I couldn't remember the last time I've had this much fun.

Shane put down the hose and dropped himself too beside me "God, I can't even rub my stomach!" he protested, still laughing, looking down at his plate-fingers.

That comment made me, Jason and Nate, who had decided to lie down on the carpet too, to laugh off even harder.

The twins seemed to have had a blast as they were lying on their backs, unable to do anything else but laugh like crazy maniacs.

"When is it coming off?" Shane asked me, showing me his hands

I surprised even myself when I replied to him, still half laughing "Don't worry; I'll help you get rid of it later"

---

Next morning Shane woke me up;

"You just got a call from the twin's summer course's teacher; she wants you to meet her…" he announced me, while he held in his hand the telephone, covering the speaker with his palm so the woman wouldn't hear him talking to me "you think you could meet her at one?"

"At one? I have to go to work…" I exclaimed, after glancing at my clock to realize I was already late for it too.

"Maybe I can go" he shrugged his shoulders and I felt like hugging him (you know, in a purely thankful way).

"That'd be a lot of help, Shane, thanks" I sat on the edge of my bed and nodded, after stretching and rubbing off my eyes "I'll try to catch up with you…"

"Ok" he wandered off the room and out of nowhere it came back to my mind, the smile he had on his face and the cute way he had just shrugged his shoulders. Normally, I'd want that thought off right away, but this time (for some reason) I just replayed it shamelessly about a hundred times, till I had to go and take a bath.

I thought that weird behavior meant I was feeling slightly more fund of Shane now he had switched from "rock star jerk" to "snuggle bunny".

And once again, I have to ask you not to get weird ideas; I don't feel anything special for him, but well, he was born good-looking and there's nothing I can do to help it… besides I know he's just out of boundaries as he's supposed to be my cousin.

GOD! I can't wait for Brown to come pick him up!

----

(End of Mitchie's POV)

"Good evening, I'm Shane Gray, cousin of Annie and Allie" He spoke, stretching out his hand towards Mrs. Brett, the girl's teacher "we spoke this morning"

Mrs. Brett looked rather thankful and relieved when she shook Shane's hand; she had the twins sitting in opposite corners of the classroom, looking towards the wall "I'm really glad you could come today to meet me… I have something very important to discuss with you"

She sat down in her desk and signaled Shane to take a sit in front of her; Shane pulled one of the kids' chairs closer to the teacher's desk, ready to hear whatever she had to say.

"Is there something wrong with the girls?"

Mrs. Brett nodded "I'm afraid there is; I don't want to worry you, but have you ever considered about sending the twins to a psychologist?"

"Psychologist?" Shane grinned, repeating the teacher's words "I think the least the girls need is a psychologist; medication maybe, but not a psychologist"

"That's exactly what I'm meaning" Mrs. Brett explained Shane "I think Annie and Allie may have a serious problem, I'm only concerning their health; I don't think normal kids are as much active as…"

But Shane went lost, looking around, noticing Annie and Allie were still looking at the wall "How long have they been like that?" he interrupted Mrs. Brett suddenly, pointing towards the girls, the woman blinked taken aback.

"Well, Shane, you must know the girls like to spend the day causing mayhem everywhere they go…"

"I didn't ask why they were there, I asked how long have they been there" he interrupted Mrs. Brett again, he was starting to hate the mustache in her face and how high-pitched her voice was.

"About an hour and a half" Mrs. Brett mumbled and when she noticed in Shane's face how his anger raised, she explained "I really have no choice; the girls are monsters!"

But it really didn't help at all, as Shane turned from angry to outraged; he stood up the chair and shouted out to the teacher "They're monsters?! You're one to talk if you can leave two six-year-olds in torture position for an hour and a half!" he was red in fury when he called out for the twins "Let's go girls; we have to get you some ice cream… and a chiropractic"

Annie and Allie, who had been listening to everything with a lot of interest, jumped off their chairs cheerfully and then walked off the classroom, each holding one of Shane's hands.

"Yay!" Annie exclaimed cheerfully, rising up her tiny fist in the air "you shouted out to Mrs. Stache!"

"Mrs. Stache, Mrs. Stache" Allie chanted happily, skipping towards the door of the school.

"Shane, you rock!" Annie was the one who speak again and when they reached the car, both twins hugged him thankfully:

"We still having that ice cream, right?" they asked him and he grinned, nodding.

"Who wants chocolate topping?"

----

**PLEASE REVIEW; it helps a lot adding some pressure to know I have readers... and well, you can always leave one saying: OK, you lazy bitch, you better hurry!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	12. The Responsible Adult

**A/N: review, please :D**

"The Responsible Adult"

"Mitchie, you should've seen it!" Annie and Allie dragged me by the hand to the inside of the house when I finally got home after work; their faces were covered in a sticky substance that appeared to be chocolate fudge ice cream "Shane shouted at Mrs. Stache!"

"He did what?" I instantly stopped on my track, frozen; I had never dared to shout to Mrs. Brett (not that I didn't want to) in the years I had met her.

"He shut her big mouth up!" it was Kara who responded me and I jumped back a little back with surprise; I hadn't seen where she had appeared from. Mrs. Brett had been her kinder garden teacher too and probably, just about any student she had ever had hated her, including me in the list "come on, we're celebrating in ice cream!" Kara took my hand to help the twins dragging me inside the kitchen.

I was still dizzy when I saw Shane waving me hello from the kitchen table "Hey, Mitchie! What about some ice cream?" he asked me, directing his rock star smile towards me and I was lucky I was still half frozen in shock or I bet I could've fallen right there. Shane stood up his chair, still holding his stupid smile, to take a bowl of ice cream for me with a very chivalrous and nice gesture that I just couldn't accept.

This wasn't right: I couldn't melt on Shane Gray's smiles like a stupid fan girl, so before Shane could pass me the bowl I HAD to shout at him "What are you doing? Didn't I tell you not to get around ANY kind of food?"

I could see as Shane's rock star smile vanished, replaced by a shocked look and I sighed mentally with relief, now I could breath again "What?!" he asked me, putting down the bowl "I was just serving you some ice cream…"

"Well, I remember the last time you tried to "serve" food to us; you practically tore the kitchen apart!"

"It was the twins with their pranks…"

"Just get the hell out the kitchen, will you?" I finally shouted out at him angrily, just like I had a few nights ago. This time Kara and the twins shared Shane's shocked look.

"Ok, ok" he shrugged his shoulders and walked out, defeated and it wasn't long before Annie, Allie and Kara followed him, giving me disdain looks.

I knew I had gotten carried away but I can assure you don't have the slightest idea the kind of powers that Shane Gray carries in his smile unless you see it in person, really, all I can advice you in case you're someday in that position is "run away, fast!"

I know I've said this a hundred times before but, I can't wait for Brown to come take him away…

"Hey, where the fuck is him?!" I shouted out suddenly remembering it was SATURDAY, Brown should've called by now, he should've been here!

"I'm here…" Shane dipped his head, like a scared little puppy in the frame of the kitchen's door

"NOT YOU!" I shouted out at him "your uncle Brown; he was meant to come pick you up today!"

"He called when we all were out" Shane announced me, surprisingly he wasn't shaky anymore "he said he couldn't make it this week…" Shane should've seen the color drained off my face because I can't explain his amused face any other way "Sorry, I guess you'll have to bare me for another week"

"I'll try" I mumbled out bitterly, pushed him aside and walked out to my bedroom.

---

"No, Mitch, please forgive my life!" Brown moaned out in desperation when I cornered him his back to a wall, holding a running chainsaw in my arms, ready to cut him off limb by limb.

"You must suffer" I shook my head, holding a psychopathic look on my face, every time walking dangerously closer to him "like I did while taking care of your stupid nephew!"

"MITCHIE!"

"What the fuck is he doing here?" I asked out when his voice pierced my ears and I looked around looking for the guy, but he was nowhere in sight. I feared the worst "His voice! He's finally gotten in my head!"

"MITCHIE!"

"NOOOO!"

"MITCHIE!"

"What?!" I sat on the bed in a halt, realizing (for my great relief) Shane hadn't gotten in my head, instead he was there sitting in the edge of my bed… wait, that wasn't really a relief "What the fuck are you doing here?"

Shane smirked "you just asked that, in your sleep; I came to bring you some ice cream, I realized you didn't have any" he showed me a small bowl he had in his hand with chocolate ice cream covered with whipped cream and a cherry on the top. It was a calorie-fest, just like I loved it.

I hesitated before I took it in my hands "th-thanks" I took the spoon he held out for me and I couldn't help my doubts, so I had to ask "you didn't poison it, right?"

Once again I saw his smile fade away, this time replaced with an annoyed look as he groaned desperately "is nothing I ever do good enough for you? I'm fucking trying here!"

It was the first time in days I saw a glint of the old Shane in him again, cursing and shouting out, except well, the old Shane wouldn't cry: he had thick tears rising up in his eyes and I couldn't help feeling like shit for the second time in the week.

"It's ok, I'll eat the ice cream!" I told him and shoved a big spoon full of chocolate ice cream down my mouth, which wasn't such a god idea because it made my teeth hurt "Ow! Cold!" I shouted out in pain and tried to swallow; soon Shane laughed at me, even when his tears had to roll down his cheeks.

What? Wasn't this due about to cry seconds ago? I pushed my pillow on his face in a way to vendetta for my hurting teeth and he laughed even harder.

"Shut up!"

He stopped laughing and groaned once again "What's wrong with you? Why can't we just get along?"

I looked down on my hands; I could easily come with a very large list of reasons why, in my head, I just couldn't say them out loud:

One. I'm not your cousin, that's a lie.  
Two. I am taking advantage of your amnesia  
Three. Just a week ago, I decided you were a jerk.  
Four. When you remember who you really are, you will think the worst of me too.  
Five. I can hardly look you in the eye…

"I mean, we could be very good friends, Mitchie: we both love music, we sing…" he continued "we're almost the same age and I cant think of anything else, but I bet we have a lot in common, I just… don't remember them…"

I looked up on his eyes and shook my head "we have nothing in common, except for the music, and once you recover all your memory you'll know it. You'll hate me, once again"

"What? No! Of course not!"

I rolled my eyes "you will, Shane, I know it…"

He sighed, lying back in my pillow "we really used to fight ALL the time? You really got no good memories of me at all?"

I shrugged my shoulders "Probably… I just can't think of any right now…"

Shane smiled bitterly "So, I came to the right place to try to recover my memories"


	13. Sugar Lips

**A/N: I know I suck because I seem to update every year XD, this time I'm back and I promise to finally finish this!  
Also, expect a new chapter for "When you're around" soon!**

"Sugar Lips"

Brown Cesario, the usually radiant manager of Camp Rock, sat in his desk with no bigger worries in his mind than settling the finishing touches for this year's Final Jam (actually he only had to do a few phone calls to get some new light equipment)

His phone rang and he picked it up, happy the music electronics store returned his call so soon

"Hey, mate; this is Brown Cesario's office"

"Where's my son?!"

Brown almost let the phone fall from his hands when he heard on the other side, the angry and desperate voice of her own sister, Shane's mother. "What a wonderful surprise, sweets! You called me last two years ago; we got a lot to catch up on…"

"Save it, Brown, just tell me where the hell is Shane?!" she insisted "you said he was on the camp but he hasn't returned any of my calls for a week and there's updates on saying he never got to the Camp and that there's someone very similar to him who was found floating off shore somewhere in the sea. Please tell me that look-alike isn't Shane, because I swear to God…"

"You're subscripted to ?"

"BROWN!"

"Don't worry, sweets; that guy isn't Shane; he's been here all week. We tricked starstalker with some false information about him not attending to keep the paparazzi away" Brown lied "He's here, well safe and sound"

"Why hasn't he answered any of my calls?"

"He's… busy" he explained, crouching backwards in his chairs with remorse "and angry, naturally…"

"I need to talk to him, Brown"

"He's busy…"

"BROWN!"

"He's on class…"

"don't you dare hang the phone on me, Brown…"

"I'm sorry, I'm busy too…"

"BROWN!"

He hanged the phone and sighed with relief, once again falling back on his chair. He regretted now not going to pick Shane last day as he had promised Mitchie and he was sure she was feeling just as sorry as him he was still in her house.

"Oh, what the hell..." he shrugged his shoulders; he had to think of a better excuse in case his sister would call again.

---

(Mitchie's POV)

"Well, there was this time when I fell off my bike…" I lied to him: we were digging our fingers into a bowl of popcorn that Shane had just made whilst lying on my bedroom's carpet floor, looking how the fan in the ceiling moved in a circularly fashion "I was four and I was just learning to get rid of training wheels and you helped me up and cleaned the blood off my knees and tried to heal me"

"Impossible" he exclaimed, which made me turn to look at him with worry.

"No, I swear…"

"I hate blood; I'm positive" he cleared me, I smiled and nodded

"Yeah, you puked five times that day" I joked and he threw popcorn at my face "You're so cleaning that!" I protested.

"Like I don't…" he shrugged his shoulders, while his face turned darker and his look went back from my face to the rotating fan.

"I'm sorry about it" I told him "maybe I should… contribute?"

"That'd be pretty helpful, yeah"

I smiled and he retrieved the friendly gesture, then I saw his eyes wander again from my face to a spot over my bed and I wanted to slap myself really hard in the face; I had forgotten to get rid of that Connect 3 poster.

"I should've put that down yesterday…" I apologized with him

"No, no… It's ok" he shook his head "I mean, it was weird because you hate me and such but… I look really good!"

This time I threw popcorn at HIS face "egocentric"

His face turned darker once again and I saw his finger crushing one of the soft pieces of popcorn that had fallen, against the carpet "So… you and Nate, huh?"

I looked at him for five seconds with a clueless and innocent look until I finally caught up on what he tried to tell me "what? No! There's nothing, really, NOTHING!" I really had no reason to use that much emphasis, but I guess Shane's brown puppy dog eyes and the fact I still wanted to punch Nate right in the nose for mocking me about that same infamous poster made me answer in such hysterical way.

"Really?" Shane raised again his face and for some reason I think I caught a gleam of hopefulness in his eyes… maybe I was just wrong, but he surely did look a lot more cheerful.

"Well, yeah, that'd be wrong; he's your best friend" I assured him

"And Jason?" he gave me a meaningful smile that I could only respond by sending him a look that if translated to words would say "are you kidding me?" He laughed "yeah, I was just playing around with you…"

We shared small laughs before I sighed happily and added from the bottom of my heart "I would've never admitted this before, but… you were actually who inspired me to start making music; that's why I learnt to play guitar and keyboards and started singing"

Suddenly Shane's face looked like tearing apart, between the satisfaction smile he held in his mouth and the surprised look in his eyes "really?" he asked me.

I nodded "You had this awesome band with your friends and you were so young; if you could achieve that, then I could do it too… or that's what I thought" I responded. I wasn't being untrue at all; I had actually learnt to play guitar right after I had heard the acoustic version of one of Connect 3's songs, in fact, that song was the first I had learnt to play and sing.

Shane said nothing more, just returned his look towards the rotating fan above us, after directing me a thankful, bright smile.

"By the way; retorting to Mrs. Stache was epic!"


	14. Don't Catch Me

**A/N: The song mentioned is obviously Demi Lovato's "Catch Me".**

**This chapter is LONG, but i didn't see the point of an awfully painful cliffhanger, still there's a cliffhanger LOL**

**I promise to update, at least every week, i hope it makes happy who (i think) is my only reader right now, "L is for Left"; this is specially dedicated to you :D**

**----**

"Don't Catch Me"

Shane opened up his eyes lazily and blinked a few times before he could distinguish clearly the rotating fan above himself. He turned his face to his left side to see the face of a deeply asleep Mitchie; they had lost consciousness over the popcorn bowl, in Mitchie's room's carpet.

He stopped his own hand, reaching out to her face when she gave out a small groan and positioned herself into fetal position; she was cold. He didn't hesitate much to stand up and take a blanket from her bed to cover her. Once again his hand reached to a dangerously short distance from her face and he found himself taking it back to his own side; she was his cousin, what exactly was he playing at?

He held a bitter smile when he took the empty bowl of popcorn and the one that once had chocolate fudge ice cream and left the room.

Minutes later when he was washing the dishes on an empty kitchen, and he got the chance to process it, he realized there was something really not right about the way he was feeling about Mitchie lately; it wasn't just the usual way a cousin would feel about another cousin and it was disturbing… it was just incestuous.

---

(Mitchie's POV)

"Shane?" I mumbled as I rolled around on the carpet; I was aware we had fallen asleep on the carpet of my bedroom, but I couldn't recall when I had gotten my blanket. But once my sight went clearer I realized Shane was no longer beside me and so the bowls of ice cream and popcorn were nowhere around.

I rubbed my eyes, as I pulled my torso up to stand in a sitting position; the blanket fell from my shoulders to my lap and felt a sudden cold breeze coming from the rotating fan I had left turning all night through. There was a bitter smile on my face, I knew Shane had been the one to blame for the blanket on my lap and the disappearance of the dirty plates; there was no way I could keep on lying to him anymore.

I took my cell phone and my wandered from Brown's number to Nate's, not sure who I should call first.

"Hey, Mitchie"

I jumped, being surprised by a sudden whisper from Kara, whose head was coming inside the door.

"You scared the hell out of me" I turned to face her "what is it?"

Kara helped herself into my room and into my blanket, sitting next to me "I saw Shane coming in yesterday"

I sighed "yeah, he got me ice cream… so what?"

"I didn't see him leave" she continued, her eyes gleaming maliciously.

I rolled my eyes "whatever you're thinking, that's just sick… remember he's supposed to be our cousin?"

"I'm just saying… maybe he doesn't think of you as a cousin either" Kara gave me a last meaningful wink, before I sighed again "what?" she asked me, changing her expression to a concerned one.

"I think I should tell him the truth" I responded her with a tired voice "I don't think we should keep up with this lie; we were supposed to finish all this over the weekend…"

Kara rolled her eyes "you're thinking too much, Mitchie" her arm rounded my shoulders "Look, just do what I do and relax; all I know is that I have a famous rockstar living at my place and his gorgeous-looking bandmates come over everyday to check on him…" she shrugged her shoulders happily "honestly, this is paradise"

Once again I rolled my eyes to Kara's lack of priority criteria "you're hopeless…"

"Not as much as you" she responded me, standing up "and sure I'm not as stressed" she gave me a small pity look, before leaving my bedroom.

"Not as much as you" I mocked out her voice "yeah, what do you know? All you do is staring at them like an idiot!"

I heard her muffled laughs through the door, before she crossed her own bedroom's door.

---

"I'm gonna tell Shane the truth" I announced to Nate, hours later, when I called him into the kitchen with me, while Shane and Jason played the twins and Amanda a song about baby ducks (obviously, Jason had written it) that they sang along to.

I saw in his face that horrible smirk that Kara had shown me earlier in my bedroom.

"You spoke to her…" I sighed tiredly, guessing that my evil little sister had something to do with that sinister look.

He nodded, but corrected me "You mean HIM; Shane told me about your evening together…"

"Well, wipe off that smile from your face, I'm telling him off and he'll be back to being a jerk" I announced him and he laughed "and I've got news for you; you are gonna be the one who's taking care of him then" I continued and he ceased laughing.

"Have you spoken to Brown?" Nate cleared his throat.

I shook my head "I've been trying to reach him all morning, but he doesn't answer any of my calls. Of course, I was expecting it; do you have the number to his office at Camp Rock?"

He pulled out his cell phone, but before he reached through the numbers, he asked me "why don't you consider it twice?"

I responded him negatively "it's not right, we're taking advantage of his disease… what about his family?"

Nate considered it for a while, before finally sighing tiredly "Fine, go talk to Shane and I'll try to get Brown on the phone"

"Now?" this time, it was me who hesitated; Nate nodded and I shook right away the shocked look I had on my face, before Nate could mock me about it. I took a deep breath and left the kitchen, followed by Nate, who searched through his cell phone for Camp Rock's number.

Just when we both crossed the door to the living room, Jason's song was in his final chord so it wasn't hard for me to speak up towards Shane "Hey, I need to talk to you…"

The gleefully look he gave me, when he nodded in acceptance to my proposal made my stomach move in a very irregular way, inside my abdominal area. Then I felt the eyes of my sisters and Shane's band mates over both of us and I realized that the crowded living room wasn't the most comfortable place to tell Shane how he had gotten there and how he was a super rock star, not really my cousin (though, it WOULD be safer in case he'd ever try to attack me, maybe Jason and Nate could stop him).

"I need to talk to you, ALONE" I stated, sending the present people a significant look. It didn't take Nate and Amanda long to understand, so they helped me dragging the twins and Jason away from my sight, but their suddenly cut off steps told me they were gathered in the stairs, where they could hear what was going on.

I felt an inch more comfortable as I sat beside Shane in the couch; at least if he started shouting, Nate and Jason would be able to listen to it and run to help me out.

"What is it?" Shane asked me, smiling. His smile slowly faded out when he realized I didn't have a very happy look "What?" he asked again, in a gloomier tone.

"I…" I started out, but his worried look messed with my tongue and my mind "Well, we…"

"What happened?" he asked me once again, and those eyes made me realize I just couldn't tell him the truth, at least not yet.

"I… forgot your birthday" I responded finally, with a heavy sigh.

Along with my sigh, I could hear several relief ones, coming from the stairs.

"Today's my birthday?" Shane asked out shocked.

I nodded in response "I'm sorry, it's just that with your amnesia and those working hours, I just completely forgot it…"

"Today's my birthday…" he stated, as if he wanted to make himself remember it too.

"Happy Birthday!" suddenly Jason stormed into the living room and tackled Shane into a hug "Oh my god! I can't believe we forgot it!"

"Yeah, we're such losers" Nate followed Jason and helped Shane getting rid of him "sorry, man, I guess we were kind of amnesic too" Nate, the twins and Amanda (who waited in line, behind Jason) hugged Shane and greeted him for his faux birthday.

"So, how are we gonna party?" Jason asked out excitedly, and I knew everyone would turn their faces on me.

"Uhm…" I shrugged my shoulders "who wants to go bowling?"

---

"I still got it!" Shane high-fived Nate as he scored yet another strike, making sure they both were kicking mine and Jason's ass. I'm good at bowling, is just that Jason kept forgetting that the holes in the bowling ball were meant for fingers "I guess this little amnesic dude didn't forget to kick ass at bowling!" Shane mocked me, after reading the charts; me and Jason had been reduced to smithereens by him and Nate (though, this last one wasn't so good at bowling).

"At least the carnage finished" I sighed, putting my hands behind my head and throwing my back, back on the chair.

"So, anything else you wish to do for your birthday?" Nate patted Shane in the back; he was happy he had been paired with him and therefore hadn't lost.

Shane threw an unconscious look at me, but before he could even open his mouth to answer Nate's question, the lights of the bowling rink turned suddenly dimmer and a voice in was heard through the speakers as a slow song played in the background "It's nine o' clock already… you know what to do: grab a couple and take the stage…"

Nate elbowed me and I blushed, thinking he might have been asking me to "take the stage" with him, but I realized it was far from being true when I saw his worried look; the song in the background was actually a ballad that had been one of Connect 3's last CD's hit singles.

"Uhm, Shane!" I shouted out rapidly, before the guy realized that that melodic voice was actually his own "I… I have a present for you, come with me to the van!"

He nodded right away and helped me through the crown of couples that were already dancing slowly to the song.

"What is it?" he asked me happily, when we reached the van, we could still hear on the distance, the slow song playing inside the bowling rink, but his voice was tons less recognizable at that safe distance.

I obviously had nothing for him, so I ordered him to cover his eyes and wait as I searched through the van, looking for anything that could help me out of that situation.

"Mitchie?" Shane asked me once again; I was aware I was taking centuries looking for "that present", but I couldn't fin anything useful in that old and rusty van "can I open my eyes?"

Out of the panic I was into, I grabbed out my iPod and responded him with a sigh "yeah, you can open your eyes now"

"You bought me an iPod?" he asked me five seconds later, when he realized the only thing I held in my hands was my old Nano "well, thanks… but I have one already, with a better capacity"

"It's not the iPod… it's a song" I responded him, trying for my voice to be as firm as it could.

"A song?" he lightened up suddenly "you wrote me a song?"

I wasn't aware of how ridiculous this thing was until I heard him asking me out loud "yeah, I wrote you a song… don't you dare tell Nate about it; he'll make sure I never forget it..." I searched through the playlist, looking for one of my tunes, before I could find the one I looked for, a song called: Catch Me.

I didn't know why exactly I was making him listen to that specific song, but I wanted him to; he plugged the earphones on and I bit my sleep as I waited for him to finish listening.

At the five seconds of listening to it, he gave me a confused look, probably because from the first line, the song was a love confession. He looked down, concentrating on the song and I saw him smile, though his confused look lingered.

It seemed like years long, before he took off the earplugs and retrieved my iPod. I even suspected he would've repeated it.

"Was it really for me?" he asked me, shyly, breaking the awkward silence that we got squeezed into.

I didn't know what to respond, I just shrugged my shoulders. The reason why I wanted him to listen to that song was obvious; I liked him and those lyrics I had originally written for no one, were the perfect description I could give to the way I felt when Shane was around me.

"But, we're cousins…" he stated, to me and to himself.

"We're not" I finally said it out loud and his confused look came back to his face, except this time there was no smile.

"What do you mean?"

"I…" Once again I hesitated; no matter what I had said all this time about lying to him and how it wasn't right, I couldn't tell him the truth and let him hate me once again, not now that my feelings for him had changed; I wanted a chance to be with him "I'm adopted" I lied once again "that's why you hated me; you didn't like it when my parents adopted me"

"So… we're not blood relatives?" he asked me, one last time and approached me slowly.

I shook my head and a second later, I wish I hadn't, because Shane coming closer to me made me dizzy.

"So, then it's ok if we… you know, like each other a little bit?"

I nodded, but then it hit me "You like me?"

He nodded and leaned his head down to level with mine "a lot"

Our lips were inches from touching and I could feel the temperature of my whole body rising up, when he placed his hand on my cheek.

"Hey! Are we going yet? Why are you taking so long?"

Shane and I quickly pulled apart, when we heard Nate's voice and his footsteps walking by, alongside with Jason.

"Uhm" I responded him, avoiding Shane's look, deeply ashamed "yeah, it's kind of late… we should get going"

I cannot recall how exactly I got to drive to Nate and Jason's hotel and back home; my hands still shook like crazy, just as my feet and I thanked it was night time, so Nate and Jason couldn't notice I was blushing deep red all over my face.

"Well, good night" Shane told me, when I finally parked in front of the house

"Yeah, good night" I responded him, before he got down the van and I watched him disappear inside the house, before I hit my head in the van's hand wheel with frustration. I couldn't believe I had actually committed that huge mistake of telling Shane I had some affection for him, IN A SONG! Still, he had admitted he felt just as affective about me… that unfinished kiss was probably the biggest source of frustration; I just hated Nate so much for bumping in at the worst moment.

---

**So, will that kiss ever happen?**

**Don't forget to revew!**


	15. Skeletons in the Closet

**A/N: YAY for me updating!**

**Special thanks to "L is for Left" for the amazing review: I LOVED it was so long! :)**

* * *

"Skeletons in the Closet"

A confident Brown Cesario, checked in his cell phone for voice messages; he had been very busy last day with Final Jam so he hadn't been able to answer any call or text at all.

He wasn't surprised (even smiled) when he found a dozen calls from Mitchie's mobile.

"I'm telling Shane the truth"

When he heard this sentence, just five seconds later, his smile faded away. The dozen messages he had from her had the same statement and he couldn't help to wonder in shock if she had made her menace true.

He was relieved when he heard Nate's message where he said Mitchie had been trying to reach him all day because of Shane, but in the last moment hadn't told him anything.

"Still, I think you should come get Shane already… I'm not very sure, but I think he has a thing for Mitchie and he's really confused. Besides, I think Mitchie's mom is coming next week, so we're running out of time"

Brown dropped himself heavily on the chair and sighed; it was true that he had reached break point and now, if Shane was really feeling something for Mitchie, it meant he could end up really hurt when it all came down to the truth. He was about to take the phone to make reservations for the next flight towards the small town where Mitchie lived, when his phone ringed once again.

"You're not telling me Shane's busy once again" once again, he heard his sister's angry voice on the other side of the phone.

"I'm not telling you anything then, because he IS quite busy" he responded, trying to sound casual.

"So, once again, I just cannot reach him" the voice of the woman sounded tired.

"Actually, you have the worst timing I had ever seen, sweets" he responded her "look, I don't mean to be rude, but I am quite busy myself; you know, rough night at the Final Jam, I gotta go!"

He didn't even give his sister time to protest when he hanged the phone on her yet again.

He sighed once again, before taking his phone to make those bloody reservations; it was indeed, time to find his nephew.

---

It took what seemed to be hours, for Mitchie to wake up next morning; she wasn't having a particularly sweet dream, but she didn't want to have to face Shane yet.

She had to remember herself she had to go to work about a million times to convince her legs to finally walk towards the shower. She let the warm water wake her up a bit and tried to relax, breathing deeply. But she knew that whatever she did, it would be mostly worthless once she saw once again Shane's brown eyes.

She wondered if things would be just as awkward if Nate and Jason hadn't arrived at such an unworldly moment last night and Shane had actually kissed her.

There was no way this wasn't awkward or just plain hopeless; such perfect atmosphere, like the one last night wouldn't repeat and Shane would end up knowing the truth and he would regret even trying to make it happen in the first place.

She sat in the edge of her bed, after dressing up and sighed heavily; she knew she couldn't hide in her bedroom all morning and sooner or later, Shane and she would have to face each other again.

She was about to take the doorknob when someone hit her door, which made her jump backwards, not expecting it.

"Mitchie? Are you feeling ok?" it was HIS voice the one that asked on the other side of the door; though it sounded slightly different than the other times she had heard it "you don't want to be late for work, do you?"

"I…" she answered, sounding as awkward as she felt "I'll be right there…"

There was a small pause, before Shane spoke again "About last night…"

"It's ok" Mitchie hurried to answer "it's not a big deal; I shouldn't have made you hear that song in the first place…"

"What? Of course it is" he corrected her "and that song, I can bet it was the best birthday gift I ever received!"

Mitchie melted when she heard him "Don't, please…"

But it was late; Shane had opened the door that separated them

"You shouldn't be here" Mitchie stated "You really shouldn't…"

"Look, I don't really care…" he responded her, when he saw tears grouping in her eyes "You're not really my cousin, we can be together, right? If our parents oppose…"

"NO!" she interrupted him "it's not about our parents; it's not even about being cousins. We're not really cousins; you shouldn't be here!"

"Ok, I'll leave the bedroom if it makes you uncomfortable!" Shane took a few steps back

"No, I meant; you shouldn't be in the house! You shouldn't even be in this stinking city!" Mitchie sobbed with desperation "You're not my cousin! Or Kara's or Amanda's! We lied to you!"

"So, that's it? You don't want me here?" Shane asked her, and her desperation rose up to the maximum; hadn't he heard a work she had said?

She pulled him by the hand downstairs to the kitchen where Kara, Amanda and the twins were taking the breakfast Shane had prepared for them.

"Tell him, girls" she ordered them "tell him he's not your cousin"

But the girls said nothing; they only stared, taken aback, to Mitchie's bloodshot eyes.

"Is there something wrong?" Kara asked her

"Yes! I'm tired of lying to him! Now, please tell him he's not your family!" she ordered desperately, once again.

"What do you mean? He is our cousin!" Annie spoke up first and stood up from her chair to hug Shane

"Yeah, he's our cousin!" Allie walked behind her twin to hug Shane's legs.

"No! Don't tell him what I told you to tell him; tell him the truth!" Mitchie turned to her only mildly sane sister "Please, Amanda… tell him!"

But Amanda only shook her head "Mitchie, what are you doing?…"

"Look, Mitchie, if you don't want me here I guess I can go back to Los Angeles" Shane intervened "there's no need for these lies; I understand you just… don't feel it" he gently removed the twins off himself and walked off the room.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Mitchie asked her sisters furiously once she heard Shane closing the door of his bedroom behind him "why didn't you tell him the truth?"

"We're not letting you ruin this, Mitchie" Kara responded her, taking a stand

"Yeah, Mitchie; we like him" Amanda shrugged her shoulders "and you like him too, it's easy to see"

"I don't like him" she retorted, but she couldn't help her eyes traveling towards the last spot she had seen her in; before he walked upstairs to his room. She just shook her head and with that tried to shake him off too, but it was more than impossible. On the face of that impossibility, all she could do was take the van keys and drive off to work.

----

"Look, mate, I have to go; Mitchie doesn't want me here" Shane explained Nate why he was stuffing his clothes inside his duffle bag and had his guitar case ready, placed on the bed.

"She's just scared" Nate tried to convince him "why don't you talk to her?"

"I tried, Nate; she just made up this lie about me not being family with the girls so I would leave" he responded his friend "Who could ever come up with such lies? I tell you, she still hates me; probably she just laughed at me last night when I… I'm so glad I didn't" the boy sat in the edge of his bed and covered his face with his hands in shame.

"You didn't do what?" Nate asked, sitting beside his friend

Shane sighed heavily and discovered his face, before answering him: "I almost kiss her last night"

"What?!" he asked in shock

"I know it was a stupid thing to do, but… I swear I saw in her eyes… I thought she wanted me too" Shane sank his head in his hands once again, heavily "but obviously she doesn't, so all I can do now is leave; this is just… "

"Perfect!" Nate exclaimed out excitedly

"Didn't you hear me? She hates me!"

"She doesn't, Shane; you too belong together" he patted his friend in the back "just find another chance and really kiss her this time"

Shane revealed his face slowly from behind his hands "There's no way I could do that, not after this morning, anyway"

"Just put that bag down, Shane; you're not going anywhere" Nate ordered his friend with a malevolent smile in his face.

---

(Mitchie's POV)

The lights were all off and the house was silent when I arrived that night after work; I opened the door slowly. I just thought maybe everyone was mad at me because of the scene I had made that morning so I wasn't really worried something had happened; they were probably in their rooms trying to avoid me.

I was about to walk slowly upstairs, when I saw a dim light in the living room and thought maybe Amanda had forgotten to turn off the lamp she had been reading with, before going to sleep.

"You're here"

There was no Amanda in the living room and that light wasn't exactly a candle either; Shane was standing in the middle of the room, with only a candle to lit him, in the coffee table in front of him.

"I just got here…" I responded him "why are you alone… in the dark?"

He shrugged his shoulder in an adorable way "just waiting for you"

I closed my eyes painfully "Look, Shane, we spoke this morning…"

"We didn't" he interrupted me "and I think you should give me just one chance; I'm not trying to hurt you, Mitchie"

He walked towards me in that illness-inductive way he had used last night and I couldn't help but to walk a few steps back from him "I'm not exactly worried that you might hurt me, Shane…" I felt the cold stone wall against my back "I've been lying to you… I don't…"

"I fell in love with you, Mitchie" he was vertiginously close to me "and that song… you just can't tell me you don't feel the same way…"

His warm hand found my face again and I lost my speech, before I could even retort anything. He leaned down on me and just as easy as he had touched my cheek; his lips found mines and so he kissed me.

I felt a rush of adrenaline all over me and I felt electricity running on the tips of my fingers, while Shane passed his hand gently through my hair. I couldn't feel like that, not around Shane anyway: he would leave pretty soon and he would know what the truth was; still, I just couldn't remove my hands from the back of his neck or push him away at all, it was 10 seconds later, when he finally moved away gently.

He was smiling and I just had to smile back at him; long gone were those times when I would want to punch that smile off his face instead.

"Where's everyone?" I asked him, as soon as I could recover my breath.

"Right now? Probably listening to everything, from the stairs"

-----------------

**PLEASE REVIEW!!**


	16. Bring it!

**A/N: Just a couple of chapters more to go... please review!!!!!!!!**

"Bring it!"

The girls didn't take long to intrude into the living room, followed by two smiling Nate and Jason, who didn't think twice to break one of his famous group hugs on Mitchie and Shane.

"So now that we're all happy, are we getting something for dinner?" Kara asked, once they all broke off the embrace.

"Who wants pizza?" it was Shane who responded, with a huge smile that was enhanced when the twins and Amanda squealed with approval

Half an hour later, they all gathered around a table in Mitchie's favorite pizza parlor, reaching out to grab a piece of a Meat´s Lover or a Chicago Style each Mitchie's and Shane's favorite.

"Cheers to love and the lovebirds!" Jason said as he rose up his soda glass; Nate and the girls raised their glasses too, and laughed when Jason started talking about some of nature's REAL lovebirds.

Nate gave him a quarter to shut him up "Why don't you and Shane go to the sound machine?"

He nodded and took Shane by the arm, skipping him towards the music machine.

"Are you telling him now?" Nate asked Mitchie, taking a seat beside her, while Kara took the girls to the playground area.

She turned to face him, deeply surprised "What do you mean? Haven't you been the one who's been telling me not to?"

"Yeah, I know…" he took a sip of his soda "but this morning when he spoke to me about you, I just thought he needs to know before he gets hurt"

Mitchie nodded, as her eyes set upon Shane, who was helping Jason with the music machine; he couldn't move it without getting too excited and accidentally changing the CDs too fast

"Maybe"

"We couldn't decide what to play" Jason told them, responding to Nate's questioning look when he could hear nothing but the mellow background music of the place "But hey! It's open mic night!"

He opened his eyes huge, in a childish way, pointing towards the small stage that stood in front of them. The spotlight was set in the middle of it where a small chair was standing behind a microphone.

"That's on Wednesday nights" Mitchie corrected him right away; of course she knew the right date, how many times she had been dreaming of standing in that little piece of wood, singing and playing a song she had written inspirationally.

"Why don't you go play my song?" Shane asked her, ignoring her comment while passing his arm around her shoulders.

The face on her turned red as the tomato topping sauce on her pizza and she shook her head furiously "no, I can't" she looked down on her wristwatch and faked worry "it's kind of late; I think we should get going…"

"When it's raining like this?" Nate asked her with a significant smile as he pointed towards the windows of the pizza parlor; indeed a monsoon was falling over the town and it didn't seem to be ceasing at least in half an hour more "You don't want the kids to get the flu"

She sighed, when she found out exactly what the guys were trying to do "I just can't…" she insisted.

"Come on!" this time Jason spoke "I had to pass a twenty to Jeff, the clerk to get him to turn on the lights of the stage"

Shane stood up and pulled her hand gently "come on, make a duet" he gave him a sweet, convincing smile and she couldn't resist, she let go off the resistance she was pulling against him pulling and stood up.

"Wait!" Jason stopped them when they headed for the stage, giggling. They turned to him and he passed them his favorite guitar over the table "now you're good to go"

Mitchie and Shane looked at each other dreamily and smiled, before they jumped to the stage; Shane helping Mitchie, taking her hand to help her.

Then he let her sit on the chair and took the guitar, he started strumming slowly the song he had heard two days ago for the first and had stolen from Mitchie's computer onto his Mp3 player.

"But you're so hypnotizing,  
You've got me laughing while I sing;  
you've got me smiling in my sleep"

The slow strumming turned into a violent frenzy of strings and Mitchie's voice reached a higher note, she had been maintaining her eyes shut trying to forget she was in the middle of the pizza parlor and about other fifty people were looking and listening to her; she opened her eyes for the first time in the entire song and looked over her shoulder to find Shane standing beside her and giving her a encouraging smile.

"If this is love, please don't break me  
I'm giving up so just catch me"

Nate and Jason cheered for them and Mitchie could hear Kara whistling from where she was keeping an eye on the girls while they passed through the multicolored jungle gym. She felt Shane's arm rounding her shoulders and pressing her caringly, she looked upon him and smile before he bent down to kiss her.

"It wasn't so bad" she whispered when they broke away and he helped her down the stage to reunite with Jason and Nate on the table.

But before Shane could even set his little ass back on the chair, Jason shouted "Yellow alert!"

He jumped off, confused by his friend's reaction and turned around, just as Mitchie and Nate, only that these last ones knew exactly what he had meant and reassured it when they saw a couple of fourteen year olds that walked towards the table, whispering nervously and giggling between each other. They had to be Connect 3 fans.

"HEY GIRLS! WHO WANTS TO DROWN SHANE ON THE BALL'S POOL?" Mitchie shouted to the twins and they climbed off the jungle gym right away to run towards Shane to take his hand and pull him over to the games area.

Just a second after Annie and Allie had Shane bouncing on the trampoline, the girls got to the table and asked Nate and Jason for autographs and photos.

Mitchie sighed relieved when the girls didn't run behind Shane for an autograph and a picture of him; she and Nate had come up with that strategy to keep Shane from his fans (that would either make him regain his memory or just confuse him back to oblivion) ever since the first time an overly excited friend of Kara had reached the table where Shane and the girls had been having ice cream and shouted out for him like a crazy maniac.

Nate and Jason smiled for her when she crossed her arms over her chest, in a worried gesture; they too knew that the trick was wearing out.

---

The phone rang next morning, about seven times before anyone would listen to it or even stood up to answer.

The phone rang once again, but this time Mitchie heard it on the fourth ring and held her hand out lazily to pick it up from her bedside table.

"Hello?" she asked, rubbing the sleepiness off her eyes and stretching up.

"Why nobody answered me?"

Mitchie suddenly stood up from her bed: the voice she had heard had made a chill climb up her spine. She had forgotten her mother was on a cruise through Hawaii and was days from arriving.

"Mom! What a surprise!" she responded, maybe too loud to be believable "Sorry, me and the girls slept late over a movie…"

"Don't you have to work today? And it shouldn't be a surprise I call you, Mitchie; we're arriving in a few hours…" her mother sounded concerned and surprised but not as half as Mitchie looked when she checked in the calendar that hanged on the wall beside her bed; indeed her mother's arrival date was exactly that same day.

She covered the phone with her hand and made a frown of pain, but it took her less than a second to gain composure to ask her mother, trying not to stutter "in a few hours?"

"Well, we're on the airport right now; it shouldn't be long" her mother responded "so, what about work? Are you going?"

"It's my free day" Mitchie responded "I mean, I asked for it… to look after the twins"

"Why? Isn't Kara helping you? I told her…"

"No, no, no!" she hurried to correct "She's helping alright, but I thought maybe I needed some time off, I want to take them to the park after their course…"

"Well, we're about to board; see you, sweetie"

"Yeah, mom, we'll be waiting!" Mitchie faked enthusiasm, even smiled nervously before she heard her mother hanging her mobile on her. She was five hours from getting home, possibly six, if the air traffic wasn't good; that meant she had six hours, tops, to hide Shane away.

"KARA!"

---

"Everything ok?" Brown Cesario asked to a middle aged woman who had just hang up her cell phone just to bring out to her face a worried face, sighing as she sat back on the chair she occupied on the airport's waiting room.

"Teenagers" the woman responded him, making him a gesture with her hand with which she intended to say it wasn't a big deal, though her face still showed him the complete opposite "you know how they are…"

Brown puffed out and changed his seat to the one next to the woman "Indeed; they're hard to deal with, very hard"

"Yeah… it's not like my Mitchie couldn't take care of herself; she's really mature, but the way she spoke to me…" Connie Torres spoke, more to herself than to the man sitting beside her.

He suddenly realized why the woman had looked so familiar to him "Mitchie? So, you are Connie Torres?"

The woman turned to him, changing her expression for a shocked one "yes... have we met before?"

"No, but I've met your daughter Mitchie; I asked for a catering service last week" he responded her and held out his hand "I'm Brown Cesario"

She shook her hand, ceasing her worried look.

"I don't think you should worry that much" he assured her "your daughter seems to be reliable; the moment I saw her, I knew I could trust her even my nephew's life!"

Connie smiled at Brown's "joke"

"Yeah, I guess she is doing fine"


	17. Warning

**A/N: As always, sorry I made you wait! Please review!**

"Warning"

"Mr. Torres!" Brown Cesario waved his hand up in the air to the man he had barely seen between the people that were in the baggage reception area.

"Is that man from the waiting room…" Mr. Torres spoke in his wife's ear, after he turned away, pretending in a deplorable way, he hadn't seen the man that called out his name "If we hurry, we can take the taxi before he reaches us…"

"Honey, don't be rude! He's a client of the catering" Connie hit the arm of his husband, before turning around to wave her hand back at Brown

He didn't take long to reach them, to Mr. Torres disgust "I'm so glad I could find you, my friends"

"Yeah, first class should've been very lonely for you…" Mr. Torres retorted with bitterness, picturing the man sitting pleasantly in a bed-size seat while he had to struggle to seat between his wife and an oversized male.

"Not really, I found an old friend of mine…" Brown didn't take in Mr. Torres' sarcasm "he's on tour right now…"

"Yeah, well, that's gotta be an amazing story but we have to go get a cab, right Connie?" Mr. Torres elbowed his wife.

"Off we go, then" Brown interjected with a smile, before Connie could respond his husband "I can talk about that 'amazing story' on the way"

"Oh, that'd be really nice!" Connie responded with a smile and her husband groaned with jealousy.

An angry ring on the telephone woke up Nate, who had been pleasantly resting after the late night celebration; as he sat on the edge of his bed, he felt as if he hadn't slept more than five minutes, though his messed up hair and swallowed eyes were proof he had.

"Yeah?" He asked in a lazy voice, wondering why Mitchie had called him so early in the morning; she must've been as tired as him.

"YOU HAVE TO COME PICK SHANE!" Mitchie yelled with panic on the other side of the line, making Nate squirm painfully and afterwards move the phone a few centimeters away from his ear. Mitchie was still shouting something about an airport when he interrupted her:

"Mitchie, would you calm down? Because I can't understand a word you're saying… in fact, I can't even hear you, because you just shouted my right ear deaf!"

But instead if calming down, Mitchie growled like a wild animal (literally), which made an already taken aback Nate, stare at the phone with panic and even at the distance he was from it, he could clearly hear her furiously shouting out "I DON'T HAVE TIME FOR THIS RIGHT NOW! YOU'VE GOT FIVE MINUTES TO PICK SHANE OR ELSE I SWEAR I'LL JUST ABANDON HIM SOMMEWHERE IN THE WAY!"

The hung tone was heard, but Nate was still paralyzed with panic, looking at the phone.

Five seconds passed, before Jason rushed inside the room, carrying a tray with two plates of pancakes that instantly filled the room with their delicious smell

"I made you breakfast!" He announced happily placing himself beside Nate, on the edge of the bed.

Nate switched his eyes instantly from the phone to his friend, forgetting completely what had happened with Mitchie; he started asking himself how and why Jason had made breakfast if they were staying in a hotel with room service.

"Who called?" Jason asked him, pointing to the phone he still held in his hand

"Mitchie" he shrugged as he put the phone away, the smell of pancakes making his stomach go into rumble: having those pancakes was priority.

"What did she want?" Jason helped himself a fork and his plate and started eating

"She wants us to pick Shane, or else she'll abandon him on the side of the road" he said mechanically as he reached out for his own plate, but when he was inches from it, Jason took it away.

"There's no time to eat, right now: we have to go!" he exclaimed like a worried mother and Nate moaned in frustration

He rolled his eyes "Mitchie calls us daily asking us to pick Shane, and it's always because she feels guilty… maybe they fought over something stupid again"

"What if he got his memory back?" Jason suggested and Nate couldn't deny it was a good reason why Mitchie would shout in such a horrible way through the telephone. Obviously if Shane had gained back his memory, he was about to butcher her.

"Fine, go get us a cab while I dress up"

Nate was still so frustrated over the pancakes he even forgot the fact Jason had being sensate for a second. So when his friend ran off the room, he stood up to his pajamas into a pair of denim jeans and a shirt, he fixed up his hair a little and ran out the room to find Jason. But not before he could get his hands in one of those magnificent pancakes, he was just not gonna let that tasty breakfast get away so easily.

"… I SWEAR I'LL JUST ABANDON HIM SOMEWHERE IN THE WAY!" Mitchie hung up the telephone as angrily as she had shouted at it, and then started walking around the living room like an angry lion, biting on her pinky nail from time to time.

Kara, who had been sitting in silence watching and hearing his sister act like a neurotic, found the state her sister was in so lamentable she dared to ask her "why don't you sit for a while and take a deep breath?"

Mitchie turned towards her and responded with a look so wary, it made Kara sink deeper back in the couch

"Our parents will be here any second" he explained Kara with exasperation, because if her sister could suggest her she had to relax it was because she obviously hadn't understood yet the magnitude of things.

"I know that" Kara responded her, almost as exasperated "but you don't really mean that about abandoning Shane, do you?"

Mitchie shrugged his shoulders and felt like a complete bitch when she responded "Not if Nate gets here on time…"

Kara couldn't believe her ears listening to the girl that right last night had proclaimed her love for said boy to everyone in the pizza parlor "We could explain mom and dad…"

"What? That their five daughters, two of them teenagers, had been living with an unknown sixteen year old boy for a week?" Mitchie puffed "yeah, I bet they'll be really understanding; why don't we tell them I'm dating him, also?"

"Ok, ok, it wasn't the greatest idea" Kara admitted, tired of Mitchie's sarcasm

"And that's not even the worst part! I could get suited!" Mitchie dropped herself in the couch, covering her face with her hands "I'm gonna be sent to jail for kidnap! I should've left Shane at the hospital… I knew it wouldn't make me any good having him here…"

"It's ok, sister" Kara patted her in the back and hugged her "I don't think Shane will let them do that, of course he's not presenting charges…"

"Who knows, once he gains his memory back…" she suddenly came to a silence: she had heard steps coming from upstairs, so she cleaned off the tears from her eyes and stood up, away from Kara.

Seconds later, Shane came into the living room, carrying his duffle bag and his guitar case, he looked somewhere between sad and confused "Nate's not here yet…" he stated, looking around the room, where he only found Kara and Mitchie.

"He'll be here in no time" Mitchie assured him with a smile and a voice tone that was millions sweeter than the one she had used with Kara.

Shane only nodded and let himself fall on the couch, depressively: he still couldn't understand completely why Mitchie had waked him up so suddenly that morning, asking him to make his bag. He had thought that last night they had made everything clear.

"I'll go check on the twins…" Kara announced once she noticed Shane and Mitchie had something to talk about, and rushed off the living room, running away from the gloomy atmosphere that had formed around the couple.

Just five more seconds of silence passed by, before Shane accommodated on the couch and spoke in a slow and sad voice "What's all this you're doing, Mitchie?"

She took a deep breath, finding herself unable to look him in the eyes "You're right, Shane, there's something I haven't told you…"

"There's always something you haven't told me, Mitchie!" Shane interrupted her with an angry groan "Why? What are you hiding from me?"

Mitchie had tears in her eyes and she knew there was no way she could gain enough braveness to tell him what she had done, so she felt horribly relieved when the little Amanda rushed inside the living room

"There's a van outside the house"


	18. The only way is down

**A/N: Once again, all I can say is THANK YOU to my readers and reviewers! I love you all! :D**

"The Only Way is Down"

(Mitchie's POV)

"What do you mean a van?"

"There's a van outside, that's it" Amanda shrugged her shoulders and gave me an odd look. Just a second ago, I had tears in my eyes and Shane demanded me a response for the way I had been acting all morning. All those things were forgotten instantly, when Amanda had entered to tell me someone was parked outside our house, even Shane had fallen silent.

"I'm gonna go check who is it" I stood up quickly, and I felt my heart pumping so hard on my ribcage, I was afraid Shane could hear it.

I ran to the door, feeling extremely nervous as my cardiac rhythm went nuts and I felt my hands sweaty when I took the door knob; something wasn't right in the fact that no one had knocked on the door (if that van carried someone that had a business in our house, that should've been an obvious step after they parked) and those voices I could hear outside didn't sound any familiar to me.

I dipped my head out the door slowly, afraid of whomever was waiting outside and just a second later I realized Amanda had made an understatement; there wasn't a van, but at least five of them parked outside our house. None of them related in anyway to the airport or our parents, but that didn't mean I could relax at all, because instead those vans had logos of newscast and celebrity gossip shows from local and even nationwide channels, just a few worn-out cars that belonged to the paparazzi that prepared their cameras along with the reporters (some even were already transmitting live from outside our house!).

"Look! There's Mitchie!" someone noticed my shocked face, dipped out the door and instantly every one of the reporters, paparazzi and cameramen ran towards me, flashing their cameras and shouting out questions.

"Hey, Mitchie is it true you kidnapped Shane Grey?"

"Is he inside the house? Could we talk to him?"

"Does he have his memory back?"

Between panic and shock, I hid my face once again behind the front door before I locked it firmly on the faces of the bunch of reporters that gathered outside.

On this point, my breathing had become fast and superficial as I felt I wasn't getting any oxygen on my system. There were reporters outside my house, and they knew Shane Grey was there and possibly also, everything about his accident. If they knew it and had arrived to my front door even before my parents had, the chances I could get out of this alive were one in a million, and Nate wasn't even there to pick Shane yet! What was I supposed to do?

"Mitchie, what are we going to do?" Kara, who had obviously had seen those reporters from the twins' bedroom window, came from downstairs with a face as pale as a ghost.

"Why? What happened?" Kara and I turned towards the third voice with panic: Shane and Amanda had come out the living room.

"Was it Nate? Is he already here?" Shane asked me, looking like he was ready to get out of there and I couldn't blame him after the extremely weird morning he had had.

I shook my head "he must be stuck in traffic…"

Next thing, we all heard a loud bang coming from upstairs of something heavy and solid hitting the ground and I remembered Kara had let the twins unsupervised. The girls had a perfect timing.

"I'll go check on the girls…" Shane volunteered before I could even ask him to, like he obviously knew I would.

After Shane had passed by Kara on the stairs on his way to the twins' bedroom, there were seconds of complete silence where Kara, Amanda and me stared at each other, only interrupted by the noises of what seemed to be a struggle between the reporters and someone that had arrived on the place. I turned my head to have a better ear sight of the situation that was going on behind the locked door, while Kara and Amanda stood in silence to hear.

"Mister Cesario, is it true you abandoned your nephew in this house?"

"Abandon? Wow, that sounds kind of tragic!" I could clearly recognize the voice of Brown Cesario responding with a hint of guilt

Next thing, I heard my dad shouting out with anger: "What are all these people doing in my house?"

"Excuse me, please… No, I won't answer any questions… I don't know what you're talking about" We heard the voice of our own mother, from between the questions of the reporters as she approached the door.

Just a second later, the ring on the front door made me stand up and stare at the door knob while I shook like crazy. This was it.

"Mitchie, open up!"I heard my dad knocking on the door

I took one last deep breath before I took the door knob to let them in; one second later, my parents and Brown Cesario entered, pulling their baggage before quickly pushing the door closed behind themselves in the same panicked way I had, just minutes before.

They were sweaty and tired, from struggling between the reporters to reach the front door. And my dad waited to gain back his breath before asking me, with an accusatory tone "Mitchie, why are all those people outside our house? And why were they asking us about Shane Grey?"

"Better yet, tell us who is that Shane Grey!" my mother multiplied my father's accusatory tone times ten. It was obvious she hadn't liked the way she had been received on her own house and suspected something very wrong was going on.

"Is Nate here yet?" Just in case I needed something else, Shane came running downstairs followed by the twins to complete what I could describe only as the most horrid family reunion ever.

"WHO ARE YOU? AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING WITH MY DAUGHTERS?" my mother shouted out horribly, deeply concerned, before I could even open my mouth to reply on him. She gave me a look that demanded me to answer when a few seconds passed when Shane couldn't answer.

But once again, I had no need to answer because instead, Brown Cesario intervened "He should be Shane Grey" and though he replied calmly, he couldn't hide the hint of guilt in her voice.

Shane, who had been looking from me to my mother, deeply confused, suddenly turned to him as he seemed to recognize the voice and the face of that man "Uncle Brown!" he exclaimed with surprise, before turning to me "Mitchie, you didn't tell me my uncle was coming! Mitchie… Mitchie…" Every time he repeated my name, his face turned more serious, like he suddenly remembered something and my horrible suppositions of him, gaining back his memories were confirmed when he spoke once again "Mitchie… the "Baby Cook"?" His words were deeply stained with disgust "you're the catering girl!"

"I'm sorry…" I begged him in a whisper, while trying to hold the tears that filled my eyes.

"Mitchie, what is going on?" My dad demanded and, once again, I was saved by Brown Cesario:

"I think I should be the one to explain" he offered "Why don't we go to the living room and take some coffee… relax a little bit?"

Surprisingly, my parents made no objection and let themselves be dragged by him to the kitchen.

My parents had been out to the kitchen just for a few seconds, when the ones that remained on the entrance heard a second ringing on the door, followed by violent knocks and a panic shout from who I reckoned, could only be Jason:

"Mitchie!"

(End of Mitchie's POV)


	19. Smile for the cameras

**A/N: THANKYOU!**

"Smiling for the cameras"

"You think Mitchie already abandoned Shane on the side of the road? Did you see him back there?"Jason lifted his head to look better out the window of the car; he and Nate were riding the cab he had called from the hotel.

"Jason, Mitchie didn't mean that: she loves Shane, she wouldn't abandon him…" Nate replied to his friend, but if Jason would've been more intuitive, something in the way he tapped his foot on the floor of the cab could give him a clear hint of how unsure he was of his last sentence.

But Jason wasn't more intuitive, so he would just lay back on the seat of the cab with a silly smile "you're right…"

The seconds passed and Nate's tapping became more violent: about five minutes ago, the cab had stopped moving, though, from the times he had taken that road he knew he was just a few meters from Mitchie's house

"What's going on?" Nate asked the driver "can't you go any faster?"

"I've never seen this kind of traffic in this particular place" the driver shrugged his shoulders, holding a concerned look "there had to be a problem… maybe an accident…"

"SHIT!" Nate had taken a look out to the cars that preceded them and parked in front of Mitchie's house and noticed the bright logos of newscasts and the reporters that waited outside her door, for anyone that would come out.

"Don't be rude!" Jason prevented him, with an angry mother tone.

"Sorry" Nate apologized, almost unconsciously and then pointed him out the window so he would see for himself "but it seems we have visits…"

"Shit!" Jason exclaimed, in perfect concordance with Nate with a worried face "how does the press know?"

But Nate didn't answer him; instead he jumped off the cab after throwing a twenty to the driver, thanking him for the ride. Jason followed him and they had given just a few steps towards the house when the sea of reporters ran towards them like a group of hungry lions over a pair of defenseless zebras:

"Nate, Jason; could you tell us anything about Shane?"

"Is it true you're throwing him out of the band?"

"What about that girl Mitchie? Is it true they're engaged?"

"They're sixteen, for god's sake!" Nate, who had been trying to move between them, pushing towards the front door suddenly stopped looking at the reporters with an exasperated look, while Jason (who had been following his friend) looked at all them deeply confused. But that was the first and last thing that the reporters heard from him, because then, Nate would push his way to the door more furiously until he reached it and could ring.

"Mitchie!" Jason screamed in an extremely exaggerated dramatic way, while mimicking melting on the door. It was a relief Mitchie didn't take long to open the door; they had already made enough of a show for the reporters to talk for the month.

Unlike the frenzy that was going on outside, inside the house there was a glacial silence and, they could notice, the tension on the air could be cut with a knife.

Nate took a second to take in the scene: Mitchie almost with her back on the door, her eyes were red and filled with tears; Shane standing on foot of the stairs, looking at Mitchie like he could anytime, jump on and stab her and Amanda and Kara looking at them deeply concerned, while the twins ran one behind another, between their feet.

Shane had gained back his memory; there was no doubt about it.

"We're late…" Nate stated and Shane quickly switched his eyes from Mitchie to him, still holding that assassin look

"We're not late, Nate!" Jason intervened with a triumphant smile "You see? You were right: Mitchie wouldn't abandon him on the side of the road…" Jason had to erase his triumphant smile when Nate elbowed him in the ribs.

"We are late, Jason! Shane has got his memory back…"

"Is that the reason why Mitchie's almost crying?" Jason asked, as if he had just noticed the girl that had red stained eyes.

Shane gave out a loud groan and threw himself on the stairs, sinking his face between his hands "I need to get out of here!"

He was shaking with anger when Mitchie kneeled beside him "Sorry…" she whispered as she tried to hold him, but just when she placed her hand around his shoulders he pushed her away and stand up. Next thing, he pulled the front door open and let himself be drowned between the reporters and their cameras.

"Shane!" Nate shouted out and after he and Jason had given Mitchie a brief smile of comfort, they ran out of the house behind his friend.

Shane Grey and his mysterious disappearance had been news for a week, and the rumors he had been almost drowned and amnesic had only made the whole thing an even bigger deal, so it wasn't a surprise that when the young rockstar stepped out of the house, the reporters all ran towards him with their burning questions.

"Shane! A few words, please!" they begged him, while he covered his eyes, with the back of his hand, from the flashes of paparazzi cameras. Though, a second later, he agreed to stop on his track (he wouldn't know where to go anyway) while holding his most charming smile as if it needed no effort.

"Good evening" he saluted his public, while shooting back his head to fix some misplaced hairs that hung on his forehead "what do I owe the honor?"

Nate and Jason reached him that moment and stood behind him, holding worried faces.

"Is it true you had a horrible accident?"

"How's your memory, Shane?"

"It was just a small slip" he made an "it wasn't a big deal" sign with his hand, never erasing hi charming smile "I fell on the ocean and the rest is history that you already know, of course" he blinked an eye on the closest camera.

"Why didn't you fly back to L.A.?"

"We heard from a reliable source they had kidnapped you, like in the movie "Misery". Was it true?"

Jason and Nate exchanged worried looks when Shane took a second to answer. But to their relief, instead of bursting out with remarks about Mitchie and the way he had been treated in her house, Shane puffed and giggled when he responded:

"Where did you hear that? That´s far from being true" he faked an amused face "My stay in this little town, particularly speaking about this house, is part of a reality show that my Uncle Brown produced: I had to live with a family that wouldn't treat me like a star… you know, like in "The Simple Life""

The reporters seemed to be as taken aback by this statement as Jason and Nate.

"Good luck with that new project, Nate"

"Thanks, though I don't think it´ll go past the pilot" Shane responded with a bitter smile and Nate could swear he saw him shot a glance at the front door of the house from the corner of his eye.

"There have been rumors of a break up from Connect 3"

"They're just rumors" Shane stated as he passed his arms over Nate and Jason´s shoulders "these two guys right here are just like my brothers: they would never betray me…" he shed a meaningful smile on each of his friends and they felt how the shame stuck in their throats as they retrieved him with a weak smile.

"So, you see, we're as strong as ever" he finished and waved goodbye to the reporters that started to put down their cameras, deeply disappointed there had been no real scandal, as they expected.

"Where's the car?" he whispered when most of the reporters had gone away

"We don't have one" Nate confessed, watching carefully at his friend's face; there was a tweak in his left eye ever since he had been asked about Mitchie "I'll call a cab…" he suggested, taking out his cell phone.

But Shane was no longer paying attention to him: he and Jason were looking at a spot on the road right behind Nate "There's no need" he told his friend to put his phone away and he turned his head around to glance over his shoulder to the black shiny Jaguar that had parked just beside him.

"Oh, Shane! My baby!" The car had barely stopped when Shane's mother jumped off and ran, with her arms wide open, towards her son. Before he even knew it, he was trapped in a choking hug.

"Mom, there´s still reporters around" he pushed her off carefully, five seconds later and she nodded in understanding, wiping with a tissue, the tear in her eyes.

"Sister, you're here!" Brown Cesario, who had been hiding behind the front door for the reporters to disperse, came out with a smile "How did you know we were here? I didn't tell you…"

"Of course you didn't tell me!" she walked decidedly towards him and slapped him with fury "why was I supposed to know my son was amnesic? No, of course not! He was on the edge of death and I had to find out about it through an update from !"

Shane watched his uncle stumble back when his mother hit him and he wished for a second to do the same but he didn't venture any further towards him; right behind Brown, there was Mitchie standing between her mother and her father who looked at the scene with worry (even her mother had covered her mouth with her hands when her mother had slapped Brown).

"Come on, mom" Shane suddenly grabbed his mother's shoulders to prevent her from hitting and screaming on Brown again "there's a long way to L.A."

Minute later, and ignoring completely Jason and Nate begging him for forgiveness, Shane and his mother rode the car.

"Are you ok?" his mother asked him, after she had ordered the driver to conduce them towards the airport.

He nodded roughly "I don't want to talk about it…" he put on his earphones and turned on his MP3 player. He couldn't resist from turning back his eyes, towards the house he was leaving behind: there, still standing between her parents, Mitchie shed silent tears.

It was surely the last time he would see her for the rest of his life and though while looking at her he was still furious she had treated him the way she had and lied to him, a part of him was guessing painfully that there would be a long time before he could forget her completely.

Shane groaned and turned away, trying to dismiss the thought "let's get out of here"


	20. The Final Jam

**A/N: FINAL CHAPTER! I'm really excited and happy that I could finish before summer break was over... Thanks to all my reviewers annd readers, you really are the best! :D  
So, here's finally the ending to the story, love it or hate it, PLEASE REVIEW!  
And if you liked this, I'm possitive You'll enjoy also my other Smitchie "When You're Around", so go check it out!**

"The Final Jam"

Two weeks later:

"I want bacon" Jason pouted like a little kid. He was holding a fork in one hand and a knife in the other, looking at Mitchie from the kitchen table.

"How much more is it gonna take you, Mitchie?" Nate demanded, rubbing his stomach "I'm starving!"

"Hold on!" Mitchie shouted: she caressed the handle of the pan where the bacon crunched happily as a result of the combination with oil and the flame underneath.

"Bacon! Bacon!" the twins didn't help her mood at all while they chanted happily, dancing around the table waving their forks in the air.

"Mitchieeee!" Jason moaned once again, which made her completely lose her temper.

"Shut up!" she shouted back at him when the smallest hint of patience had escaped her body "anyway, why exactly do I have to cook for you? You're not my family…"

"Duh! You love us" Jason responded her with a know-it-all tone she had never heard on him before.

"You have a poster of us over your bed" Nate reaffirmed his friend's point "Besides; if you don't, Shane will break up with you… you love him best"

"What?" Mitchie fixed her confused on both guys: were they actually black mailing her?

But she couldn't start to bribe them about what they had told them when she heard a loud cry, similar to a baby beast's when it's suddenly unpleasantly woken, coming from the second floor.

"Would you please shut up? I need my beauty sleep, for crying out loud!"

"Shane…" Mitchie gasped worriedly at the sound of her boyfriend's angry voice: the boy needed at least two more hours of sleep before he could be ready for the photos and press conferences that he would probably be attending as a good superstar he was.

She caught the sound of footsteps approaching downstairs and the next thing she knew, Shane Grey was there in front of her in his blue silky pajamas, taking off the cucumber slices he used to moisturize and fight the black circles under his eyes.

"What's going on down here? Cant you understand I need to rest?" he asked with fury, waving the cucumbers in the air, before turning an accusatory look towards Mitchie "It's your fault; you just can't do anything right!"

"I was just cooking…" she tried to explain herself

"NO! It's always your fault, Mitchie!" he interrupted her, raising his voice "but I should've known you didn't deserve a second chance…"

"I'm sorry, Shane!" She begged him, as she quickly placed the pan with freshly cooked bacon in the center of the kitchen table (Jason and Nate instantly stuck their forks in).

"You're not! You wouldn't be such a mess if you were"

"Sorry!"

"Mitchie…"

"I am truly sorry"

"Mitchie!"

"I swear…"

"Wake up, you dumb!"

"What?" She opened her eyes in a halt before closing then back again a second later, when the sun rays that entered through her window hurt them. It was then when she realized she had been dreaming all along: she had had that same awkward dream about five times before, since Shane had gone.

At first she had found it to be weird, but also horrible as she had woken up sobbing in a miserable way afterwards, though she had ended up by getting used to that dream, and even taking it as the only chance she had to see Shane again.

It was masochistic and plain sick, she knew that, and still she couldn't help the burning hate she started feeling towards her sister, Kara, for waking her up.

"You got mail" Kara announced her happily, holding back her laughter; she had heard her sister begging forgiveness to the Shane Grey that kept appearing on her dreams.

"Kara, have you been using my computer again?" Mitchie sat on her bed and yawned

"No, dummy! You got REAL mail" she responded, deeply amused before throwing a small, white envelope on her lap: it had already been opened (most likely, by Kara) and the letter that was its content was halfway out.

There was no sender's name or address, so it was virtually impossible to know what was the deal with that letter unless she'd read it.

"Who's…?" Mitchie had started asking her sister, but before she could finish her question, the girl had run out towards her own bedroom.

She took out the piece of paper that Kara had barely re-folded and noticed it had been written with a letter very similar to a seven-year-old's, like someone (who wasn't a lefty) had used his left hand to write it. Though the message was brief and, despite the irregular writing, pretty clear, Mitchie had to re-read it five times to process it.

"This must be a joke…" she whispered when she had finished reading it for the sixth time.

The day was sunny and hot and still as Mitchie looked out the window of the cab that drove her to Camp Rock (a place she had been dreaming to visit ever since she had heard of its existence), the look in her face wasn't anything like happy. Instead, she tapped with her foot nervously, holding an angst face.

Just a week ago, she had received an "anonymous" invitation to attend Final Jam; at first Mitchie had refused to accept it, as she believed it was all a bad joke from Brown Cesario (director of said camp) but Kara, who was convinced it was a plan by Nate and Jason to bring her sister back together with Shane, had talked her into getting a new haircut in an expensive hair salon, as well as a new dress and shoes to match and take the flight.

"Relax…" her sister, who had so kindly volunteered to accompany her, advised her in a sweet voice. Mitchie turned an exasperated look towards her, but her burning eyes didn't diminish the smile on her sister's face: Mitchie could remember seeing her that happy only once, years ago, when their parents had taken them to Disneyland.

"Of course…" Mitchie responded her with a harsh tone "it's not your ass the one who will be kicked all the way back to the airport by Shane's foot…"

"He's not kicking you out!" Kara replied in a calm voice "Just do what Jason and Nate ask you to do; and if you have to pray for forgiveness, do it… forget about every little piece of dignity you used to have"

Mitchie shed a disbelief look on her "that shouldn't be too hard"

"You did worse things to him, besides it's not just any guy you've broken up with, but with Shane Grey…" Suddenly Kara's words got reduced to background sounds to Mitchie's thoughts: it happened often lately, after she had mentioned Shane somewhere in conversations. She looked out the window once again, aware that her sister was still excitedly ranting about how their re-encounter should be, but her mind was away, imagining a place in Camp Rock… the place where he was.

The fact is, she wasn't even sure Shane would be there: she hadn't heard much of him lately (not because he wasn't in the spotlight, but because she had avoided reading, watching or listening anything that could contain news, images or even his voice), but it was pretty unlikely for him to be visiting his uncle right now as he was the second, behind herself, in his list of "hated ones". And even if he was there, the odds that Jason and Nate were coming with a romantic plan to reunite her with Shane were even smaller; they probably didn't have the best of relationships either.

For the millionth time in the day, she regretted attending to the invitation, but it was too late: the cab had reduced its velocity as they have arrived to the so-called Camp.

Mitchie's hands were so shaky, Kara had to take the bill off her hands and pay the driver before she would drop it. With a lot of difficulty, she managed to get out of the car and put on her sunglasses, before cleaning her sweaty palms with her dress; she was barely breathing when Kara took her arm to encourage her to continue her way to the auditorium. She thanked her sister, silently: her stilettos might have made a perfect match with her new sundress, but they were a pain when ought to walk with shaky legs.

But her shaky legs where the least of her problems; when they approached the door to the auditorium, Mitchie suddenly stopped and refused to move.

"What?" Kara asked her, trying in vain to pull her forward

"I cannot go inside" Mitchie explained her sudden stiffness "it's not right: I shouldn't be here…"

"But we're already here!"

"Well, go if you want to: I'll just hide somewhere until it ends…"

Kara shrugged her shoulders, still her sad look reflected how let down she was by her sister's coward reaction: she expected a fairy tale ending instead. A second later, she disappeared inside the auditorium, along with the parents and family of the campers that had arrived to see them perform.

It was a whole lot easier for Mitchie to walk then, when the odds of finding Shane Grey, face to face were minimal; the Final Jam was about to start and he was probably there, sitting in the front row, flashing his gorgeous smile to the cameras…

"You're here…"

Mitchie looked up at the sound of that known voice: she hadn't been paying attention to where she had been walking; she just had followed the border of the lake, half-hiding herself between the threes that grew there.

Shane was sitting in the small wooden terrace, looking right back at her with a small smile of surprise in his lips.

"I honestly didn't believe you would accept the invitation I sent you" he continued, when Mitchie didn't respond anything to him "thought you'd still feel too guilty and deliberately coming would be much cynic…"

"You sent me the invitation?" Mitchie asked, too surprised to pay attention to Shane's mock.

"Sorry about the bad letter" he nodded, standing up to level with her "some parts of my kinesthetic memory aren't completely recovered…"

"Why…?" she started a question Shane wouldn't let her finish

"I thought of you" he shrugged his shoulders, walking slowly towards her, holding to his smile.

"I knew it" Mitchie exclaimed, which made Shane stop in a halt "Shane, I know I deserve to be eaten by raging dogs but, trust me, whatever revenge you have planned for me is not nearly as painful as what I've already been through the last three weeks…"

Shane, who had kept an odd look, suddenly started laughing "So you think I want revenge?"

"Don't you?" it was Mitchie's turn to put on an odd look.

Shane shook his head, deeply amused, before they both fell on a deep silence.

"You remember that story you told me about how I taught you to ride a bicycle?" he asked her with a remembrance tone and waited for her to nod before continuing "there haven't been a single day that I hadn't dreamt about it… I think I have even gotten over my fear of blood already…"

"It was a lame story…" Mitchie apologized

"It is actually, one of my happiest memories" Shane corrected her, shaking his head "and it wasn't even true!"

"Shane…" Mitchie started, in a sweet voice "I'm really sorry…"

"I know that" he had a hint of sadness in his voice "but I also know that all this wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been such a dickhead in the first place… you know, I didn't use to be like that; you should've met me months ago, when I wasn't a bitter and stuck up jerk" he laughed out bitterly

Mitchie laughed too "you know, that's exactly the way I used to call you"

Shane laughed even harder "sorry, about that"

"Yeah, me too" Mitchie showed her guilty smile "so… why aren't you there?" she asked, pointing with her head to the auditorium that was meters behind.

"Because I thought you wouldn't be there either…"

They shared burning looks for around ten seconds, before Shane would shake his head with impatience "I invited you here for a reason, Mitchie" he told her, once again walking towards her "I needed to see you once again"

"Me too" she whispered, almost unconsciously as he walked towards him too.

When they were close enough, Shane took out his hand to touch her cheek and she guessed on what was coming… but when he was inches from her lips, he stopped "maybe we shouldn't hurry…"

"What?" Mitchie asked, impatiently "look, life's too short… what if you fall overboard and lose your memory once again? What if I lose my memory..?"

"If that ever happens, I know someone that would, very kindly, volunteer to take care of you" Shane laughed briefly, before bending down and kissing her.


End file.
